Method and apparatus for determining toner level in electrophotographic print engines

ABSTRACT

The toner in the toner cartridge is determined by taking each of the rasterized images output by the RIP and evaluating the pixel levels over the surface thereof. The average value is determined as a percentage of the maximum toner that can be applied to the page. This is then subtracted from a toner value and a remaining toner level determined. Further, all pages of the rasterized document can be evaluated to predetermine the toner level after printing. If this falls below a predetermined minimum, printing is inhibited for that document.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 09/848,456, filed onMay 3, 2001, “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING TONER LEVEL INELECTROPHOTOGRAPHIC PRINT ENGINES” (Atty. Dkt. No. TRSY-25,474), whichis a Continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 09/044,539, filed on Mar. 19, 1998,titled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING TONER LEVEL INELECTROPHOTOGRAPHIC PRINT ENGINES” (Atty. Dkt. No. TRSY-23,859), whichis a Continuation-in-Part of Ser. No. 08/698,999, filed Aug. 16, 1996,titled “MULTIPLE PRINT ENGINE WITH VIRTUAL JOB ROUTING”(Atty. Dkt. No.TRSY-23,684), which is a Continuation-in-Part of Ser. No. 08/511,641,filed Aug. 7, 1995, titled “VIRTUAL SINGLE PRINTER ENGINE WITH SOFTWARERIP” (Atty. Dkt. No. TRSY-23,617).

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention pertains in general to electrophotographicprinters and, more particularly, to a plurality of print enginesarranged in parallel to process print jobs in a parallel manner.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Electrophotographic print engines have been utilized with both printersand copiers. In a printer, the print engine is typically interfaced witha computer to select and organize fonts or bit map the images. In acopier application, the print engine is interfaced with an input devicethat scans the image onto the photoconductor drum of the print engine.However, a CCD device could also be utilized in this application in theform of a CCD scanner. In either of the applications, a conventionalprint engine for a monochrome process would typically feed a singlesheet of paper and pass it by the photoconductor drum for an imagetransfer process and then pass it to a fuser. Thereafter, the completedsheet will be output. Multiple copy print jobs will sequentially feedthe paper in a serial manner. The speed of the printer is a function ofthe speed at which the image can be created, the speed at which theimage can be transferred to the paper and the speed of the fuser. Asincreased output is required, the speed of each of these elements mustbe increased.

In a monochrome process, only one transfer operation is required.However, in a multipass color process, multiple images must besuperimposed on one another on the sheet of paper in a direct transfersystem, thus requiring multiple passes of the paper or image carrierthrough the print engine. In a double transfer system, the image isdisposed on an intermediate drum and then the composite imagetransferred to the paper or image carrier. In a multiple print job on adirect transfer system, this requires each sheet of paper to be printedin a serial manner by passing it through the print engine. For eitherthe monochrome process or the color process, a conventional serial feedprint engine has the output thereof defined by the speed of the inputdevice and the speed of the print engine itself.

One technique that has been utilized to increase throughput is a tandemprint engine. In a tandem print engine, multiple colors can be disposedon the sheet of paper or the image carrier at different stations thatare disposed in serial configuration. In this manner, the speed is thesame for one, two, three or four color printing.

When dealing with multiple print engines, there can be a problem thatexists with respect to insuring that there is adequate “color balance”.In general, all color devices have a native range of colors in whichthey operate. This is called the color gamut of that device. Any colorthat falls within this gamut can be reproduced. Any color that fallsoutside cannot. This gamut is defined by the hardware of the device andits addressability. A monitor uses a phosphorus of some given type andis addressed in 8 bits per channel of RGB. This native gamut or range ofcolors changes for every different device. If it is desirable toreproduce a color on some devices, two things have to occur. First,those devices would have to be able to make that color, meaning, havethat given color inside their gamuts. Second, the color would have to becorrectly described, or defined as it moves from one device to another.RGB, CMYK, Lab, LCH, are all methods that devices can utilize todescribe colors. They do not always have a direct translation betweenthem, however. A method is needed to correctly translate between thesemethods. The analogy is as if one person would speak German and anotherspoke french, wherein an intermediate or interpreter would be requiredin order to provide communication. One method for solving this problemis to use a device independent (or color independent) space. A number ofyears ago, the CIE created a device independent space (XYZ) that definescolor based on the light source they are viewed under, and the colorresponse of the eye. A color independent space is a mathematical way tomap device gamuts to see where they intersect. Where they intersectrepresents the colors they share. It is also the best platform fordetermining which color to use if gamuts do not intersect. Also, in thismaster color space, all colors are described or defined using the sameterms, independent of any device. In this space, all colors are broughtto a common ground. Once a color is defined in XYZ space, it can be sentand accurately reproduced on any device whose gamut in XYZ spaceincludes that color. The reproduction of any color is accomplished bycorrelating the device native gamut to the color independent space.

During a conventional print operation, toner is used up at a rate thatis actually defined by the amount of information that is disposed on thegiven page multiplied by the number of pages. Typically, systemsincorporate some type of page counter that, when it exceeds apredetermined number of pages, indicates that the toner is low. This, ofcourse, is reset when a new toner cartridge is disposed in the printer.However, this toner decision is made strictly based upon the number ofpages and not the amount of toner actually depleted from the tonercartridge. This is due to the fact that some pages have a very lighttoner usage compared to others. For example, an image having a largepercentage of black area associated therewith will utilize a largeamount of toner, whereas a page having very light gray regions willutilize a small amount of toner. As such, the determination of a lowtoner level in a cartridge is extremely inaccurate.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention disclosed and claimed herein comprises a methodfor determining the actual toner density level in a toner cartridge fora printer. Each page in a multi-page document is rasterized and then therasterized image evaluated to determine what percentage of the pixelsare turned on and to what level they are turned on. An average value isthen generated to determine the percent toner relative to a full pagethat is to be utilized by the printer. When the page is printed, a tonerdensity value register is decremented such that the toner density valuewill represent the toner that remains in the cartridge.

In another aspect of the present invention, each page of the multi-pagedocument is rasterized and evaluated prior to printing. The toner usagefor the entire document is then decremented from the toner density valueand this value compared to a minimum value. If it falls below theminimum value, then printing is inhibited.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present invention and theadvantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptiontaken in conjunction with the accompanying Drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an overall block diagram of the virtual printingsystem;

FIG. 2 illustrates a more detailed block diagram of the virtual printingsystem;

FIGS. 3 a, 3 b and 3 c illustrate three general processingconfigurations;

FIG. 4 illustrates a cutaway side view of a three module multiple printengine operated in accordance with the virtual printing system;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart illustrating the parsing operation;

FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart for the duplex operation for a face upoutput;

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart for the duplex operation for a face downoutput.

FIG. 8 illustrates a diagrammatic view of the stacking configuration todefine a collation and gathering operation;

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of the overall job parsing operation;

FIG. 10 illustrates the parsing operation for each printer at givenjobs;

FIG. 11 illustrates process flow for the job parsing operation;

FIG. 12 illustrates a flowchart for the parsing operation;

FIG. 13 illustrates a flowchart for the overall virtual job routingoperation;

FIG. 14 illustrates an overall block diagram of the system;

FIG. 15 illustrates a block diagram of the lower level architecturebetween the virtual printer and the physical print engine;

FIGS. 16, 17 and 18 illustrate flowcharts for the engine allocator;

FIG. 19 illustrates a flowchart for the resource allocator;

FIG. 20 illustrates a prior art PCI bus structure;

FIG. 21 illustrates a block diagram of the host adapter/print adapter ofthe present system;

FIG. 22 illustrates a block diagram of the host adapter;

FIG. 23 illustrates a block diagram of the print adapter;

FIG. 23 a illustrates a detail of the translator;

FIG. 24 illustrates a timing diagram for the unload operation of theFIFO in the print adapter;

FIG. 25 illustrates a block diagram of the manner in which the deviceprofiles are handled in a prior art system;

FIG. 26 illustrates a block diagram of a conventional system forbalancing color space;

FIG. 27 illustrates the color balancing operation of the presentinvention;

FIG. 28 illustrates a flowchart depicting the calibration method;

FIG. 29 illustrates a test pattern for the fine tune operation forbi-level and quad-level;

FIG. 30 illustrates a flowchart for the fine tune operation;

FIG. 31 illustrates a block diagram of the RIP;

FIG. 32 illustrates a flowchart for the output plug-in portion of theRIP;

FIG. 33 illustrates a flowchart for the toner calculation operation;

FIG. 34 illustrates a flowchart for the power-on sequence operation;

FIG. 35 illustrates a flowchart for the merge operation;

FIG. 36 illustrates a flowchart for the stack control operation;

FIGS. 37 and 38 illustrate flowcharts for the page synchronizationoperation;

FIG. 39 illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of the presentinvention utilizing an automatic finishing step; and

FIG. 40 illustrates a flowchart for the embodiment of FIG. 39.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a block diagram of theoverall operation of the virtual printing system. A plurality ofworkstations 10 are provided, which workstations 10 comprise generalpersonal computers or other terminals that allow a user to create printjobs. Each of the workstations is networked through a network interface12, which is a conventional type of general network interface such as anEthernet® network interface. This allows each workstation 10 to send itsprint job to a central processor 14, which processor is operable toprocess the print jobs in accordance with the system of the presentinvention and distribute these print jobs to multiple print engines 16.As will be described hereinbelow, the processor 14 is operable todisassemble the print job, parse the print job into different pages anddistribute the parsed pages in a predetermined manner in accordance withthe present invention. It should be understood that a print job,although initiated as a series of pages, is sent as a single job to aprinter. Typically, printers receive the print job in a conventionalmanner, which is a string of digits and the printers determine whetherthe codes are for an end of page command, etc. However, most printoperations within a given workstation 10 are designed such that theprint job is to be sent to a single printer and, therefore, the codesare all “bundled” in a common string or job. As will be describedhereinbelow, in order for the pages to be parsed, it is important tofirst determine what the beginning and the end of a print job is, thendetermine what printer to send that distinct and separate page to, inaccordance with the system of the present invention.

Referring now to FIG. 2, there is illustrated a more detailed blockdiagram of the operation of the processor and the parsing operation fordistributing the parsed pages to the various print engines 16. The jobis received in a serial manner, and is “spooled” in a print spooler 20.This is then passed to a software RIP engine 22 which is operable toessentially decode the print string that is received from the printspooler 20. This effectively divides each print job into pages. Thesepages are then stored in page buffers 24. Each page in the page bufferessentially constitutes a single print job, such that any print jobreceived from the workstations 10 will then be parsed into a multipleprint job file. For example, if a thirty page document were to be sent,this would be sent as a single print job, which would be encoded assuch. The software RIP engine 22 is then operable to divide this intothirty separate print jobs.

Once the pages are stored in the page buffer 24, then the pages are sentto an image task manager 26 to determine how to organize the pages. Thisoperates in conjunction with an engine manager 28 to determine which ofthe print engines 16 the job is to be passed to. In order to effectivelyincrease the throughput from the engine manager 28, there are providedinterface circuits 32 which are referred to as Peripheral ConnectInterface (PCI) adaptors. Each print engine 16 has a PCI 32 associatedtherewith. Therefore, the engine manager 28 interfaces with the PCIs 32through a parallel bus 36, such that data can be transferred thereto ata fairly high data rate, which is the bus transfer data rate of theprocessor 14. The PCIs 32 therefore provide an increased rate oftransfer to the print engine 16. The print engines 16 then place theiroutput into a separate output bin 40 for each of the print engines 16.

As will be described hereinbelow, the image task manager 26 is operableto arrange the copies such that they can be placed in the output bins 40in a predetermined order. For example, if there were two print engines,each with a 100 sheet paper supply and four print jobs of 50 copies eachwere to be sent to the printers and the workstation 10, the system ofthe present invention would parse these print jobs such that the firsttwo print jobs went to the first print engine and the second two printjobs went to the second print engine. If, alternatively, the two printengines with the one hundred sheet paper supplies handled two printjobs, one at a 150 sheets and one at 50 sheets, then the first printengine would receive the first 100 sheets from the first print job, thesecond print engine would receive the first 50 sheets of the first printjob and the second 50 sheets of the second print job. However, theywould be sent to the printer in such a manner that when the paper outputtrays were unloaded and stacked together, the jobs would be arranged inthe appropriate manner. Therefore, even though there are multipleprinters, to the user they appear as a virtual single printer. Alldecision making is made in the processor 14.

Referring now to FIGS. 3 a-3 c, there are illustrated the variousconfigurations illustrating the transfer of data between an input and aprint engine. In FIG. 3 a, there is illustrated a general diagram of asoftware RIP processor 42, which is operable to generate the datanecessary to transfer to a print engine 46. However, this is effectedover a conventional parallel port 48. In this configuration, thesoftware RIP processor 42 is relatively fast, whereas the print engine46 is relatively slow. Of the time to print, three percent of that timeis occupied by the operation of print engine 46, seventy percent isoccupied by the software RIP processor 42 and twenty-seven percent isoccupied by transferring the data from the processor 42 to the printengine 46. Therefore, the parallel port 48 becomes a key factor in theprinting time. In FIG. 3 b, software RIP processor 42 is connected tothe print engine 16 via a PCI 50. In this configuration, ninety-fivepercent of the print time is occupied by the software RIP processor 42,three percent by the print engine 16 and five percent by the PCI 50.Therefore, by reducing the transfer time from the processor 42 to theprint engine 16, an increase in speed has been seen. In FIG. 3 c, thereis illustrated a fairly conventional system wherein a processor 52 isprovided, which can be a conventional PC for assembling the print job ina conventional manner and transferring it via a parallel port 54 to anengine 58, which is a conventional print engine having an internal RIP60 associated with a marking engine 62. The processor 52 is relativelyfast, and it occupies virtually no time. Seventeen percent of the printtime is taken passing the data to the RIP 60 through the parallel port54, whereas eighty percent of the print time is occupied with the RIP 60and only three percent by the marking engine 62.

Referring now to FIG. 4, there is illustrated a cutaway side view of athree print engine module parallel printer which includes three printengines 136, 138 and 40, all stacked one on top of the other. Each ofthe engines 136-140 is a multi-pass engine and includes a transfer drum142 and a photoconductor drum 144. The photoconductor drum 144 rotatesin a counterclockwise direction and is pressed against the transfer drum142 to form a nip 146 therebetween. The photoconductor drum 144 isoperable to have the surface thereof charged with a corona 148 and thenan imaging device 150 is provided for generating a latent image on thecharged surface of the photoconductor drum 144. The undeveloped latentimage is then passed by four developing stations, three color developingstations, 152, 154 and 156 for the colors yellow, magenta and cyan, anda black and white developing station 158. The color developing stations152, 154 and 156 each have a respective toner cartridge 160, 162 and 164associated therewith. The black and white developing station 158 has ablack and white toner cartridge 166 associated therewith. Although notdescribed hereinbelow, each of the developing stations 152-168 and tonercartridges 160-166 can be removed as individual modules for maintenancethereof.

During the print operation, the photoconductor drum 144 is rotated andthe surface thereof charged by the corona 148. An undeveloped latentimage is then formed on the surface of the photoconductor drum 144 andthen passed under the developing stations 150-158. In a multi-passoperation, the latent image is generated and only one color at a timeutilized in the developing process for the latent image. This latentimage is then passed through the nip 146 and transferred to an imagecarrier, such as paper, which is disposed on the surface of the transferdrum 142. Thereafter, the surface of the drum 144 is passed under acleaning station 168, which is operable to remove any excess tonerparticles which were not passed over to the transfer drum 142 during thetransfer operation and also discharges the surface of the drum 144. Thesystem then begins generation of another latent image, either for adifferent color on the same sheet of paper or the first color on adifferent sheet of paper.

In the color operation, multiple passes must be made such that the imagecarrier, i.e., paper, remains on the surface of the transfer drum 142for the multiple passes. In the first pass, the first latent image istransferred to the surface of the transfer image carrier and then theimage carrier maintained on the transfer drum 142. The next latent imageof the next color is superimposed on the first latent image, it beingnoted that the registration is important. This registration is providedby the mechanical alignment of the various drums, drive mechanisms, etc.Thereafter, the third color latent image is disposed on the imagecarrier followed by the fourth color latent image.

After the last color latent image is disposed on the image carrier inthe color process, a picker mechanism 172 comes down on the surface ofthe transfer drum 142 in order to lift up the edge of the image carrieror paper. This is then fed to a fuser mechanism 174.

The image carrier is typically comprised of a predetermined weightpaper. The transfer drum 142 utilizes electrostatic gripping for thepurpose of adhering the paper to the surface of the transfer drum 142for multiple passes. This therefore utilizes some type of chargingmechanism for charging the surface of the drum 142 at an attachmentpoint 176 where the paper is fed onto the surface of the transfer drum142. The transfer drum 142 is, in the preferred embodiment, manufacturedfrom a controlled resistivity type material that is disposed over analuminum support layer which is a hollow cylindrical member. A voltagesupply is provided that provides a uniform application of voltage fromthe voltage supply to the underside of the resilient layer that isdisposed over the surface of the aluminum support member. This resilientlayer is fabricated from a carbon filled elastomer or material such asbutadaiene acrylonitorile, which has a thickness of approximately 3 mm.Overlying this resilient layer is a controlled resistivity layer whichis composed of a thin dielectric layer of material at a thickness ofbetween 50 and 100 microns. This controlled resistivity layer has anon-linear relationship between the discharge (or relaxation) pointtying and the applied voltage such that, as the voltage increases, thedischarge time changes as a function thereof. The paper is then disposedover the surface of the drum. The construction of this drum is describedin U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,560, issued Oct. 17, 1995, and entitled, “BuriedElectrode Drum for an Electrophotographic Print Engine with a ControlledResistivity Layer”, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Pat. No.5,276,490, and entitled, “Buried Electrode Drum for anElectrophotographic Print Engine”, which U.S. Patents are incorporatedherein by reference.

The paper is retrieved from one of two paper supply bins 178 or 180. Thepaper supply bin 178 contains one type of paper, typically 8½′×11″paper, and the paper bin 180 contains another type of paper, typically8½″×14″ paper. The paper bin 178 has the paper stored therein selectedby a first gripping roller 182, which is then fed along a paper path 180into a nip 182 between two rollers and then to a nip 184 between tworollers. This is then fed to a paper path 186 to feed into a nip 188between two rollers. The paper in the nip 188 is then fed into a nipformed between two precurl rollers 190 and 192, which have differentdurometers to cause the paper to have a curl bias applied thereto in thedirection of the curvature of rotation of the transfer drum 142. Theoperation of the pre-curl rollers is described in detail in U.S. Pat.No. 5,398,107, issued Mar. 14, 1995, and entitled, “Apparatus forBiasing the Curvature of an Image Carrier on a Transfer Drum” (Atty.Dkt. No. TRSY-22,574). The paper from the bin 180 is extracted by agripping roller 189 and pushed along a paper path 191 to the nip 188 andtherefrom to the pre-curl rollers 190 and 192.

The paper is fed from the nip between the two pre-curl rollers 190 and192 at the attachment point 176. At the attachment point 176, anattachment electrode roller 194 is provided which is operable to operateon a cam mechanism (not shown) to urge the roller 194 against thesurface of the drum 142 to form the attachment nip 176. This is doneduring the initial attachment of the paper to the drum 142. Typically,this attachment electrode roller 194 is connected to ground. The surfaceof the drum 142 is charged to a positive voltage of between 800-1,000volts. The voltage is disposed on the surface of the drum 142 by apositive electrode roller 196 that contacts the surface of the drum 142at a point proximate to the photoconductor drum 144. Since the electrode194 is grounded, the voltage will decrease along the surface thereofuntil a lower voltage is present at the attachment point 176. When thepaper reaches the transfer nip 146, the portion of the surface of thephotoconductor drum 144 in the nip 146 has a potential thereof reducedto ground such that the charged particles will be attracted from thesurface of the photoconductor drum 144 to the surface of the paper onthe drum 142.

For a multiple pass operation, the attachment electrode 176 will bepulled outward from the drum and the paper allowed to remain on the drumand go through the transfer nip 146 for another pass. When the finalpass has been achieved at the transfer nip 146, the picker 172 is swungdown onto the surface of the drum 142 to direct the paper on the surfaceof the drum 142 to the fuser 174. A discharge electrode 198 is thenswung down into contact with the drum 142 to provide a dischargeoperation before the surface of the drum enters the nip 176 for the nextpaper attachment process.

When the paper is fed into the fuser 174, it is passed into a nipbetween two rollers 200 and 202, both of which have differentdurometers. Typically, there is one roller that is formed from ametallic material and one roller that is formed of a soft material. Therollers are oriented with the roller 200 having the smaller durometer,such that a reverse bias curl will be applied to the paper that is theopposite direction of the curvature of the drum 142. This will removethe curvature added to the paper. One of the rollers 200 is heated suchthat the transferred image is “fused”. The paper is then fed into apaper path 204 by a pair of rollers 206. The paper path 204 is fed to aset of output rollers 208, which feed bins 210, 212 and 214 for each ofthe printers 136, 138 and 140. Again, these are conventional printengines, although the speeds of the print engines may be different.

Referring now to FIG. 5, there is illustrated a flowchart depicting theoperation of the virtual printing system. For this description, thefollowing terms are defined:

-   -   N=number of pages in a single document    -   M=copies    -   E=number of engines    -   P=number of pages    -   i=the engine number.

The flowchart is initiated at a start block 230 and then proceeds to adecision block 232. A decision block 232 multiples the number of pages Nby the number of copies M and determines whether this number if greaterthan or equal to the number of engines. If not, then the program flowsalong a “N” path to a function block 234 to utilize only a single enginefor the print job. However, if the number is greater than the number ofengines, then the program proceeds along the “Y” path to a decisionblock 236 to determine the number of copies M is greater than the numberof engines E. If not, the program flows along a path “N” to a decisionblock 238 to determine if the number of pages in a single document “N”is greater than or equal to the number of engines. If not, the programwill flow along a “N” path to a function block 240 to utilize the only Mengines with the ith copy in the ith engine. Therefore, if there are tenengines and only five copies, then the fifth copy of a job will be inthis ith engine. If, however, the number of copies in a single documentis greater than the number of engines, then the program will flow alonga “Y” path to a function block 242 wherein the copies will bedistributed in accordance with the equation: $\begin{matrix}{P = \frac{N \times M}{E}} & (001)\end{matrix}$

If it was determined in the decision block 236 that the number of copiesM was greater than the number of engines with the number of copies timesthe number of pages in a single document also being greater than thenumber of engines, then the program flows along the “Y” path fromdecision block 236 to a decision block 244 to distribute copies. Theseare distributed in accordance with the algorithms illustrated in FIG. 5with respect to four of the engines E₁, E₂, E₃ and E₄. E₁, E₂ and E₃ arealso associated with function blocks 246, 248 and 250, each operating inaccordance with the above equation, one associated with function block242. However, E₄ will flow to a function block 256 wherein thedistribution will be as follows:P ₄ =N×M−(P ₁)+P ₂+2 P ₃)  (002)

Referring now to FIG. 6, there is illustrated a flowchart depicting theoperation for a duplex print job. In the flowchart of FIG. 6, a face upoutput is considered which is initiated at a block 260. The functionblock then flows to a decision block 262 to determine if the value of Nis even. If so, the program flows to a function block 264 to print thejobs N-2, N-4 . . . , 2. The program then flows to a decision block 266,which determines whether the value of N is odd. However, if N was odd atdecision block 266, the program would flow along the “N” path to theoutput of the decision block 266 and then to a function block 268 toprint the N+1 copies and blank copies and then print the N-1, N-3, . . .1 pages. The flowchart would then flow to a function block 270. It isnoted that if N is even at decision block 266, the program would flow tothe function block 270. Function block 270 is a function block wherein auser annually turns the output stack 180° without flipping the stack andthen puts it back in the drawer of the printer from which it came. Theprogram then flows to a decision block 74 to determine if the value of Nis even, and if so, to the function block 270 along the “Y” path toprint the pages 1, 3, 5, . . . N-1, and then to a decision block 278 todetermine if the value of N is odd. The program at this point will flowalong the “N” path to a N block 280. However, if the value of N isdetermined to be odd at decision block 274, the program will flowthrough the output of decision block 278 and to the input of a functionblock 282 which will print the pages 1, 3, 5, . . . N.

Referring now to FIG. 7, there is illustrated a flowchart depicting theduplex operation with a face down output, which is initiated at a block284 and then proceeds to a decision block 286 to determine if the valueof N is even. If so, the program then flows to a function block 288along the “Y” path to print the pages 2, 4, 6, . . . N. If it wasdetermined that the value of N is odd, the program would flow along an“N” path to a function block 290 to print the pages 2, 4, 6, . . . N-1.The program 288 would flow to a decision block 294, which determines ifN is odd and, if not, flows along a “N” path to the output of functionblock 290, the output of a decision block 294 is input to function block290. The output of function block 290 flows through a function block296, as well as the output along the “N” path of decision block 294.Decision block 296 indicates the manual operation wherein the user flipsthe output stack without turning it 180° and then inputs it back intothe drawer of the printer from which it was obtained. The program willthen flow to a decision block 298 to determine if the value of N iseven. If so, the program flows along a “Y” path to a function block 300and the pages 1, 3, 5, . . . N-1 and then to the input of a decisionblock 302. If the value of N is odd, the program flows along the “N”path from decision block 298 to the output of decision block 308 and toa function block 306 to print the pages 1, 3, 5, . . . N. The output ofthe decision block 302 along the “Y” path also flows to the functionblock 306 when N is even, and the flowchart flows along the “N” path toan “END” block 310, this being the path from the function block 306.

In general, to provide routing of the different images or pages to thevarious print engines 16 provides the ability for the system to makecertain decisions about how a particular job is output. This isfacilitated by the fact that each print job, when it has been initiallyassembled and transmitted to the system, is disassembled during the RIPoperation and then buffered in the form of separate and distinct pages.With knowledge of print related information for each of the pages in agiven job, additional processing can be performed on those pages. Thisprocessing can be in the form of routing the pages to engines that aremore adapted to the particular printing operation associated with thatparticular page. For example, a page that has no color on it would bebetter handled by a dedicated black and white engine as opposed to apage having color on it being handled by a color engine. Typically,color engines, although they do have a black and white mode, operatebest in the color mode. Dedicated black and white engines aresignificantly faster than color engines operating in the black and whitemode.

One example of a type of problem that occurs when attempting to handle aprint job having mixed color and black and white sheets is that where ahigh speed black and white print engine can be provided to print blackand white pages more efficiently than a color engine with black andwhite capability. By incorporating different types of engines as aportion of the overall virtual system in the print engine 16, a higherlevel of versatility will be facilitated. One reason that color engineshave difficulty in switching from color to black and white is that thesetypes of engines have an internal sequencer that must be programmed whenchanging printing mode (color versus black and white). To reload thesequencer requires the engine to wait for the current page to exit thefuser.

In order to facilitate this system, the print engines 16 are groupedinto physical engines of similar characteristics. For example, a set offour color physical engines can be configured as one virtual engine anda set of four high speed black and white engines can be configured asanother virtual engine. To the outside world, these virtual enginessimply appear as a high speed entity (the speed is equal to the sum ofthe individual engines rated print speed). In this case, the outsideworld will see two high speed devices, one of which has colorcapability.

There are two methods of collation that exist in the present system,automatic and gather. In an automatic collation system, collateddocuments are generated and the user is then required to stack them andperform whatever finishing is required. For example, if there were 10copies of a 6 page document, the following sequence would be printed:$\begin{matrix}{1,2,3,4,5,6} \\{1,2,3,4,5,6} \\\vdots \\{1,2,3,4,5,{6\quad\left( {10\quad{th}\quad{copy}} \right)}}\end{matrix}$This particular sequence will result in the collated copies beingpresent in the output bin. Of course, the particular number of enginescan be configured and controlled to determine how to most efficientlyprovide the collated copies. However, once the copies are in the stack,they are in a sequential collated configuration.

The gather method of collation is employed when external finishing andcollation is available. In this case, all copies of each individual pagemust be printed before the next page in the document is printed.Therefore, without the multiple engine concept as described hereinabove,this would require one engine to perform all of the necessary copies ofpage 1, then the necessary copies of page 2, etc. This would result in astack that had M sheets of page 1, followed by M sheets of page 2, etc.In the above example with the 10 copies of the 6 page document, thefollowing sequence would be present: $\begin{matrix}{1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1} \\{2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2} \\{3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3} \\{4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4} \\{5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5} \\{6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6}\end{matrix}$This arrangement, of course, would result in a single stack of the 6pages, which would then be placed in the external finishing andcollating hardware.

Referring now to FIG. 8, there is illustrated a diagrammatic view of thecollation operation and the gather operation. In this particularexample, there is illustrated an example wherein a document having “N”pages and “M” copies is to be provided for. In a collation operation, itcan be seen that the final stack results in a sequence of the firstpage, the second page, the third page and the Nth page followed by thefirst page of the next copy, the second page, third of the Mth copy.This will continue for all M copies. In the gather method, the stack isconfigured of M of the first pages, M of the second pages and M of thethird pages, only 3 pages illustrated for simplicity purposes. This willcomprise a single stack.

There are instances where the gather method of collation has asignificant speed advantage over the automatic collation method. Usingthe above noted example with 6 pages and 10 copies, assume that pages 2,4 and 6 are color pages and pages 1, 3 and 5 are black and white pages.Also assume that it is desired to have 100 copies in order to notice adifference between the two operations. If the print job is to be printedwith the color virtual engine, a time penalty is allotted each time thecolor engine is switched between the color mode and the black and whitemode and back to the color mode. In one type of color engine, a CanonP320 model, this penalty is on the order of 8 seconds. In this example,the time penalty will occur between pages as follows:

-   -   1-2 black and white to color switch    -   2-3 color to black and white switch    -   4-5 black and white to color switch    -   5-1 color to black and white switch

This will result in 32 seconds for each copy. If this is multipliedtimes 100 copies, it will result in almost an hour of lost time just forswitching between the color and black and white modes on this engine.With a four engine virtual engine, the print distribution would look asfollows: TABLE 1 Engine 1 Engine 2 Engine 3 Engine 4 1-6 × 25 1-6 × 251-6 × 25 1-6 × 25It can be seen from Table 1 that each physical virtual engine in thefour engine virtual engine would print 25 copies of the 6 page documentin the order 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, such that each physical engine would havea time penalty of 25×8=200 seconds.

If the gather collation method is utilized in the above example, thepages would be divided among the engines as set forth in Table 2: TABLE2 Engine 1 Engine 2 Engine 3 Engine 4 1 × 100 2 × 50 4 × 100 5 × 50 2 ×50 3 × 100 5 × 50 6 × 100In this example of Table 2, the first engine prints 100 copies of page 1and 50 copies of page 2, engine 2 prints the other 50 copies of page 2and 100 copies of page 3 and so on. This results in each engine onlymaking one mode change in order to allot only a single 8 seconds perengine and, since they are running in parallel, it is only 8 seconds forthe entire virtual engine.

A further optimization could be applied to achieve the following printsequence set forth in Table 3: TABLE 3 Engine 1 Engine 2 Engine 3 Engine4 1 × 100 3 × 50 2 × 100 4 × 50 3 × 50 5 × 100 4 × 50 6 × 100

In Table 3, the black and white pages have been grouped and printed onengines 1 and 2 and the color pages have been grouped and printed onengines 3 and 4. As such, there are no penalty hits due to mode changes,since each engine is never required to change modes. In order to achievethis configuration, of course, it is necessary to know whether or not apage contains color information. This information is determined afterthe RIP operation in the RIP 22, as described hereinabove.

Referring now to FIG. 9, there is illustrated a block diagramillustrating the process flow for both the automatic collation operationand the gathering collation operation. A document is input to thesystem, as represented by a box 320, which in this example is a threepage document where the value of “N” is equal to three. The nextoperation will be defining the job, which is represented by a box 322wherein the number of copies “M” is defined. Thereafter, it is necessaryto define the manner in which the stack will be configured. This stackis basically the overall result at the output of the engine. Since thisis a virtual print engine, multiple output bins will be utilized to formthe stack. Of course, if there were a single engine, the stack would bethat which results in the output bin of the single engine. With multipleengines, it is only necessary to extract the documents from each of theengines in sequence and place them into a single stack such that theoverall stack will be as if it were printed with one engine. This isdefined as the image task manager (26) in FIG. 2. The operation of thestack definition will be determined to be an automatic collation orgathering collation operation. If it is automatic, the process will flowto a block 326 to place the individual pages in the correct order andthen output them to a parser 328 which then distributes them to aplurality of print engines 330.

If the gather operation were selected at the stack define block 324, thestack would be defined as set forth in a block 328 which would be asdescribed above with respect to FIG. 8, i.e., the stack would be Mcopies of page 1, followed by M pages of page 2 and M pages of page 3.This would be input to a parser 332 for output to a plurality of printengines 334 which are configured as a single virtual engine. Byconfiguring them as a single virtual engine, the output bins from theprint engines 334 will in fact provide the stack as defined in the box328.

For the gathering operation, in order to determine how to define theparsing operation for the stack, it is necessary first to determine thenumber of sheets that will be present for each job. This is the numberof pages in a document “N” multiplied by the number of copies “M”. It isthen necessary to determine how many sheets are to be accommodated byeach engine which number of sheets is the value of “Q” which is definedby the following equation: $Q = \frac{N \times M}{E}$Where:

-   -   M=copies    -   N=number of pages in the document    -   E=number of engines    -   Q=number of pages per engine in gather operation        This is illustrated diagrammatically in FIG. 10 where it can be        seen that the boundary for each of the print engines in the        overall virtual printer (there being illustrated 4 printers) is        defined such that, when finished, the outputs from each of the        printers can be sequentially stacked to form the stack defined        in block 328. The boundary for each of the “Q” values is        something that is defined, in the present example, by equally        dividing the total number of pages by the number of printers.        However, the boundary could be defined as the page break. If        there were 4 printers and 4 or less pages, it would be quite        easy to route each page to a separate printer. It is only        necessary to fix this boundary such that the right engine will        get the right page. For example, if one of the printers in the        set of printers defined as the virtual printer were a color        printer and one page were color, the system could route the        color page to that particular printer. It is then only necessary        for the operator to understand that this particular        configuration requires the outputs to be assembled in a        predetermined manner.

Referring now to FIG. 11, there is illustrated a diagrammatic view ofthe overall parsing operation which is defined with a parsing block 340.This parsing block is operable to determine how the job is to be splitup between the engine and this is then output in the appropriate orderand stored in a page buffer 342. The page buffer then sequentiallyoutputs the data to a block 344, which basically performs the operationof the engine manager, that is, it routes the copies to the correctprint engine. The entire operation is facilitated in a manner thatallows pages to be output by the parsing block 340 in a particularsequence that will match that of the engine selection. Each of theengines may not print at the same speed and, therefore, the sequencethat the pages are output by the parsing block 340 may not be the exactsequence that they are input to the print engines. The block 344determines which pages goes to which engine and operates in conjunctionwith the parsing operation to provide the overall desired result. Forexample, one printer may be a much higher speed printer whereas thesecond printer may deal with a higher resolution page. Since the higherresolution pages take longer to print, it may be desirable to output anumber of pages to the higher speed printer such that it completes itsportion of the job prior to the lower speed printer. This will result inthe parsing block 340 outputting the black and white pages initially inorder to maintain the speed rate for the high speed printer and at aslower rate color pages for the low speed printer, such that they willbe fed to the low speed printer at the appropriate rate. This allows asingle page buffer 342 to be provided for all of the printers.

In another aspect of the present invention, the system is operable todivide a particular job into multiple jobs and provide “virtual jobrouting”. When virtual job routing is utilized, the job is examined andthen converted into two separate jobs, depending upon whether it may befaster to group the operations, for a job such as a mixed color andblack and white job. The color job would then be defined as a singlegroup and would be submitted to a color virtual engine, wherein theblack and white job would be grouped separately and submitted to a highspeed virtual engine. Each of the color virtual engines and black andwhite virtual engines are a combination of multiple engines. As anexample, a high speed black and white engine is provided that is assumedto be four times faster than the black and white mode of the colorengines. In the virtual job router, two jobs would be generated asillustrated in Tables 4 and 5. TABLE 4 Black and White Job Engine 1Engine 2 Engine 3 Engine 4 1 × 75 1 × 25 3 × 50 5 × 75 3 × 50 5 × 25

TABLE 5 Color Job Engine 1 Engine 2 Engine 3 Engine 4 2 × 75 2 × 25 4 ×50 6 × 75 4 × 50 6 × 25In the example noted above with respect to Tables 4 and 5, it can beseen that the basic job has been divided into two completely separatejobs that will then be submitted to a job manager, with each to becompleted by its respective virtual engine. This involves both errorhandling and other aspects that would be handled by a single printer. Itcan be seen from the example from Tables 4 and 5 that a significantspeed advantage has been achieved by not burdening the color engineswith the black and white pages. In many cases, a cost savings will alsobe achieved since it is cheaper to print black and white pages on ablack and white engine than it is to print on a color engine. Of course,in this example, the number of color pages was equal to the number ofblack and white pages. In most instances, this is not the case, with theblack and white pages usually outnumbering the color pages, which makesthe virtual routing a more important process.

Referring now to FIG. 12, there is illustrated a graphicalrepresentation of the process. The process is initiated at the softwareRIP in a block 350, which is operable to retrieve the initial multi-pagedocument and the RIP the document into separate pages, which pages areseparate and distinct and have associated therewith parameters thatdefine the nature of the document as to printing, i.e., whether it iscolor or black and white, the possible resolution of it, bit depththereof, etc. The process will then flow to a block 352, wherein the jobwill be defined as being a virtual job routing job and will be dividedinto two or more jobs. In the present example, there is a black andwhite job and a color job. The process will then flow to a virtual jobrouter block 354, which is the parsing operation. The black and whitejob is routed to a first job block 356 and the color job is routed to asecond job block 358. Both of these jobs are handled by a job manager360, illustrated in phantom. The job manager will route the black andwhite job to a first virtual engine, represented by a block 362, whichhas associated therewith four black and white print engines 364. The jobmanager will route the second job associated with the block 358 to asecond virtual engine 366, having associated therewith four color printengines 368. It should be noted that the job manager 360 willessentially perform the operation of the parsing and will ensure thatpages that are extracted from the internal page buffer (not shown) willbe routed to the appropriate engine in the appropriate manner and at theappropriate time. It is noteworthy that the pages will be routed to thevirtual engine 362 at a much higher rate and they will be routed to thevirtual engine 366, as the color engines are typically slower than thehigh speed black and white engines. It is only necessary that theintegrity of the overall stack that was defined in the stack block 328of FIG. 9 be maintained. It is important to note that the print engines334 in FIG. 9 basically will be grouped as the two virtual engines 362and 366 when virtual job routing is utilized and the gather collationmethod is utilized. In general, virtual job routing will utilize thegather collation method. It should be understood, however, that theprimary advantage provided by virtual job routing is that a particularpage can have the parameters thereof examined after the page has beenassembled separate from the initial multi-page print job, and adetermination made as to how to handle that particular job. This willallow the job to be routed to the most efficient engine.

Referring now to FIG. 13, there is illustrated a flow chart for theoverall virtual job routing operation. The flowchart is initiated at astart block 370 and then proceeds to a block 372 in order to perform thesoftware RIP operation. This software RIP operation is the operationdescribed hereinabove that allows the image for each page to beextracted out of the original input print job from the workstation toprovide a stand alone page. After the document has been ripped andstored as a single page, the program then flows to a function block 374to receive an input as to the number of pages in the document “N”. Theprogram then proceeds to a function block 376 to receive the number ofcopies that are to be made of the document, this being the value “M”.The program then flows to a decision block 378 to determine if the pagesare determined to have job specific pages, i.e., certain pages are colorand certain pages are black and white, or, alternatively, that certainpages require processing by a certain one of the print engines or acertain one of the group of print engines as a virtual job. If so, theprogram will flow along the “Y” path to a function block 380 in order toparse the jobs. The program will flow to a function block 382 to definethe “Q” boundary for the jobs, i.e., how many sheets are to be routed toeach engine, and then to a function block 384. Function block 384creates the stack for each job with the defined “Q” boundaries disposedtherein, which “Q” boundaries defined which portion of the stack goes towhich printer. The program will then flow to a function block 386 totransfer the pages to the page buffer and then to a function block 388in order to transfer the pages to the particular printer of the functionof the job that is being performed and the printer that is designated.The program will then flow to an end block 390.

If the decision block 378 had determined that there were no job specificpages, the program will then flow along the “N” path and proceed withthe normal virtual print engine parsing, as described hereinabove, thisindicated in a function block 392. The program will then flow to afunction block 394 to transfer the pages to the page buffer as afunction of the parsing operation and then to a function block 396 totransfer the pages from the page buffer to the virtual printer. Theprogram will then flow to the end block 390.

Referring now to FIG. 14, there is illustrated a general block diagramof the overall system illustrating in more detail the operation of theelectronic collator and the Print Station Manager. As described above,whenever a document is received, it is processed through a software RIP,such that individual bit map pages can be defined, which individual bitmat pages constitute images, which images are independent as to theprint parameters associated therewith, such as color, bit resolution,bit depth, etc., but are associated with a document. In the blockdiagram of FIG. 14, a multi-page document is input to the system. Thisdocument is input from a PC or some type of user. In general, each ofthe multi-page documents constitutes a job. In FIG. 14, there areillustrated four documents, a multi-page document 400, a color document402, a hybrid document 404, and a black and white document 406. Themulti-page document 400 may be any type of document which includesmultiple pages. Document 402 is a document that is defined as operableto be printed on a color print engine. The document 404 is a hybriddocument which can have black and white pages and color pages. Thedocument 406 is in an entirely black and white document. It should beunderstood that the virtual print engine of the present invention isoperable to convert each of the documents into single individualbit-mapped pages, which images are stored on a page-by-page basis foreach document. Thereafter, as described above, these pages aredistributed to various engines in a parallel manner, depending upon thecharacteristics of the page, the availability of the engine and, ingeneral, how best to match a given page in accordance with itscharacteristics with a given engine in accordance with that engine'scharacteristics. This facilitates maximum throughput through the enginesand maximizes the use of the engines' capabilities.

There are illustrated four print engines 408, labeled PE1, PE2, PE3 andPE4. In a preferred embodiment, the print engines 408 are realized witha Canon P320 color laser printer print engines. Each engine is rated at3 ppm for four-color pages and 12 ppm for black pages. In a mixeddocument, black-only pages are printed at 12 ppm and color pages at 3ppm. The print engines are configured to accept letter-size (or A4) orlegal-size paper and prints on only one side, although double-sidedprinting could be facilitated with another type of engine. In general,the print engine in the preferred embodiment utilizes a 60-to-80 micronspot and images at 600×600 dpi.

The print engines 408 are interfaced on the input side thereof with aprint station manager 410 through an interconnect 412, the interconnect412 defined hereinabove as the PCI interface, which will be described inmore detail hereinbelow. The print station manager 412 in general isoperable to define the way in which jobs are initially assembled andreported to the printers. The output of each of the print engines 408 isbasically disposed in bins associated with the print engines and theseare then fed to a document assembly operation, represented by a block414. This is any type of technique for retrieving documents from theprint engine and placing them in an appropriate order. In oneembodiment, this is done manually.

The Print Station Manager 410 receives the input therefrom from anelectronic collator 418, which is in part described hereinabove withreference to FIG. 9 as the stack define block 324. This electroniccollator 418 receives an input from a job parser 412, which is operableto retrieve pages from a memory 414, which pages are basicallycompressed bit maps. These compressed bit maps are oriented such thateach page defines a bit mapped image, with each page having associatedtherewith information regarding the parameters of the page with respectto printing. These parameters define such things as resolution, bitdepth, color/black and white, etc. The compressed bit maps, as describedabove, are derived from a software RIP 416, which interfaces with aspooler/OPI server 419. The spooler 419 is operable to receive thedocuments 400-406.

The software RIP 416, as described hereinabove, is a PostScript RIPcreated by Harlequin as the Level 2 ScriptWorks software RIP runningunder Windows NetWork. The configuration for this software RIP in thepresent embodiment requires 64 MegaBits of memory and a 4-GB hard diskfor storing compressed rasterized pages. In general, the software RIPcan rasterize an entire job, store it on disk, and then start sending itto another recording engine, this being the preferred mode whenutilizing slower recording engines and when rasterized data must besaved on disk for reuse later. Alternatively, the RIP is operable topass rasterized pages to the print engines at the same time it writesthem to disk. This is what is referred to as the “writethrough” mode, asit effectively results in bypassing of the print queue. In cases wherethe engines are not able to keep up with the RIP, the system terminatestransmission of data directly to the engine and continues to pass pagesto the disk, from which they are fed to the engine at a later time. Thebit maps are compressed utilizing a compression algorithm which isreferred to as a “pack bit” compression algorithm, a conventionalalgorithm. These rasterized pages are available to be printed andreprinted, either on a document or a page basis, at any time.

This software RIP is operable to provide dispersed screening techniquesand conventional half-tone screening techniques, in addition to acontone dot generator. The user can select which form of outlet isdesired for any situation. Additionally, the software RIP rasterizesdata at a variety of bit depths, from 600×600 dpi at eight bits perpixel per color for contone output to 600×1200 dpi at one bit per pixelto be screened by a screening algorithm that is proprietary to theHarlequin software RIP. When rasterizing data at 1200 dpi for output at600 dpi, the present system utilizes the extra data to modify the lasterspot utilizing the print engine's ability to modulate the beam.

The software RIP is connected to the printer via a PCI interface, asdescribed hereinabove and which will be described in more detailhereinbelow. This PCI interface will allow two engines to be connectedto the PC bus and a parallel data channel associated therewith, whichprovides a data transfer rate of 13 megabytes per second per engine,fast enough to handle hundreds of compressed pages a minute. The PCI busfeeding these engine interfaces operates at up to 120 MB per second. Thejob parser 412 is operable to split virtual print engines acrossmultiple print stations, as described hereinabove, which in conjunctionwith the electronic collator 418, is operable to set up and monitorqueues, support “virtual printers,” and provide diagnostic feedback andstatus of the print stations, which is received from the print engines408.

The electronic collator 418 is, as described hereinabove, the process ofrasterizing every page in a document only once and then printing thepages in order, such that no mechanical or manual collation or sortingis required on the output of the print engines 408, this being afunction of the actual way in which the print engines bins areconfigured. The compressed bit maps are saved, such that multiple copiesof the pages can be printed subsequently at the engines' full rate ofspeed, this being the result of rasterizing on a page-by-page basis,with no additional rasterizing being necessary for each multiple page,i.e., once a page is rasterized, it can be printed any number of timeswithout requiring further rasterization of the original input. The jobparsing operation, as described above, is operable to determine thetotal number of pages in the job (the number of pages in a documenttimes the number of copies of the document in the job), and then spreadthe job out “equitably” among the available engines, such that theoutput of one engine placed on top of the other engine yields a completejob, as if it had come out of one engine. This, of course, is a functionof the number of engines utilized and the way in which their output binsare disposed. However, each of the engines is combined in a particularconfiguration setup that will define a virtual printer that will beassociated with a particular job.

Whenever a multi-page document requires multiple pages to be printed, itis first necessary to rasterize the entire document and store it in thememory 414. Thereafter, a virtual job stack is created that has one copyon top of the other, as described above with respect to the stacks 326and 328 in FIG. 9. Boundaries are then defined, as noted above withrespect to the “gather mode” in FIG. 10, which defines which portion ofthe stack goes to which engine and the portions of the stack designatedfor those engines are routed to the engines via the distributionprocess, as described above with respect to block 14 in FIG. 1. The keyaspect of this system is that a document is rasterized only once, butemerges as multiple copies (or gathered copies) and that the job isprinted at the speed of multiple engines in parallel.

The electronic collation step is completely automatic, transparent tothe operator, which operator merely directs the print station as towhich job to print and how many copies are needed, the print stationcomprising all of the printers. This creation of the job stack anddefining of boundaries of the job stack for distribution to the enginesis determined in a relatively short amount of time on the order ofseconds. The purpose is primarily to ensure that the resources areutilized at their maximum ability. At the completion of a press run, theoperator then stacks the various output piles on top of each other tocomplete the collated job. Of course, as will be described hereinbelow,an automatic “finishing” system could be utilized to extract thedocuments and put them in the appropriate stacks. It is only importantthat, when the stacks are defined within a given printer, there is someindication, such as a separator page, that will allow the particularstack created between separators, to be assembled with another stackfrom another printer in the desired print job output.

If one of the print stations, i.e., one of the print engines 408, isdown, the job will automatically be reconfigured such that it is parsedover the remaining print stations. An output will then be provided toinstruct the operator how to arrange the pages for pickup from theoutput bin.

With respect to duplex printing, duplexing can be performed by adedicated engine or, with an engine that does not have an automaticduplex feature, a “work-and-turn” procedure is utilized. In thisprocedure, after the first sides are printed, the lights on the printstation console blink red and send a message to reload the paper. Theoperator then removes the sheets printed on one side from the output ofthe print engine 408, turns them over and places them in the input tray.The process then prints the other side and places them into the outputbins. The result is pre-sorted output of the entire job. The operatorthen moves from one machine to the next, putting the sets in onecollated stack. If needed, slip sheets fed from the printers' manualinput trays can be inserted between jobs or between copies, these beingseparator sheets. This technique can be facilitated, since the systemhas stored the individual pages and associated with those pagesinformation regarding which job it is associated with and the pagenumber it is associated with. Therefore, once the job is rasterized andthe compressed bit image is stored, it is only necessary to extract theeven-numbered pages, print them, turn over the documents, and then printthe odd-numbered pages.

By providing the page-by-page basis, this allows a merge operation to befacilitated. If the user desires, the print station manager 410 canmerge pages of a “form” document with pages of another job. This is tobe distinguished from a conventional word processing system in that theimage formed of a bit mapped image for each page can merely be printedin a predetermined order. For example, a page from a form document couldbe inserted between pages 10 and 11 of a single other document, suchthat the final document results in page 10 being followed by the formpage and then being followed by page 11. This merely requires the jobstack to be redefined and redefine the output job. Of course, if twojobs are input at the same time and are to be merged, it will requireinitial rasterizing and storing of the jobs prior to the mergingoperation. If the jobs have already been rasterized and pre-stored, thenit is only necessary to create the virtual job stack, which isrelatively quick.

The spooler 419 is operable to optimize printing over the network. Thespooler can take jobs directly from a workstation and route them eitherto disk or directly to the RIP 416 in order to begin processing. This isprimarily directed toward Macintosh computers. For generalIBM-compatible PC's, the jobs will go directly through the print manageron the Windows NT print manager directly to the spooler. After the jobsare rasterized by the RIP 416, they are then stored on the disk 414prior to output to a print engine.

Jobs may be printed as contone images or screened. The spooler willpublish print cues representing printer characteristics. This will thenbe displayed to the user as printers in the print setup menus forWindows. Also, different queues can be provided with othercharacteristics, such as different paper sizes or collatingrequirements.

Referring now to FIG. 15, there is illustrated a block diagram of thelower level architecture between the generation of a virtual printer andthe print engine 408. As described above, the virtual printer is aconfiguration setup in which a certain number of printers in the systemare utilized together to produce a single job. Just as queues representcharacteristics that affect how the RIP will process the file, thevirtual printer defines the way in which the engines are configured,which affects how the RIP will feed them with the pages to the printers.Each “virtual printer” is actually one or more physical engines, whichvirtual printer essentially represents the print engines that areavailable to the RIP sending a document to be printed, i.e., the finaldestination is defined. The virtual-printer system is a method to allowthe user to define fewer than the entire series of printers forassociation with a single job, such that one or more engines areavailable to print a different job. Overall, each system and eachdifferent site may set up as many virtual printers as it desires withits allocated engines. For example, an operator could set up two enginesas one virtual printer, the other engine as a second virtual engine, andall four engines as a third virtual printer. Then, the job could bedirected from the RIP to the third virtual printer, thus using all theprinters to output the same job. Alternately, two separate jobs could beprinted concurrently, each using one of the first two virtual printers.

In the block diagram of FIG. 15, there are illustrated three virtualprinters 420, labeled virtual printer A, virtual printer B, and virtualprinter C, respectively. Associated with the virtual printers 420 aretwo distinct allocation systems, an engine allocator 422 and a resourceallocator 424. The engine allocator 422 is responsible for managing thephysical print engine resources, while the resource allocator 424manages the memory resources. Since disk usage, CPU usage and busbandwidth are directly related to memory usage when sending bit maps tothe engines, managing memory usage effectively manages the otherresources.

In general, the engine allocation block 422 is required to give eachvirtual printer 420 access to the print engines 408 in a controlled andpredictable manner that will guarantee maximum use of each engine. Theengine allocator 422 works in concert with the electronic collator 418,while the electronic collator 418 itself generates job stacks for eachengine, the engine allocator 422 ensuring that there is a physical printengine 408 available to execute a particular job stack.

The resource allocator 424 has two basic functions: memory managementand performance management. If a system has only a limited amount ofmemory, and all engines wish to utilize this memory to load bit maps atonce (which contain more data than available memory), the system maycause unpredictable behavior unless the memory is managed. In somesystems, it is more desirable to dedicate more memory usage (bus CPUtime and bus bandwidth) to the RIP versus the physical engine or viceversa. With the resource allocator 424, this is a relativelystraightforward method which can be presented as a slidebar to the user.One end of the slidebar increases engine performance while the otherincreases RIP/spool performance. The block diagram of 15 depicts thebasic communication and data flowpath from the virtual printers 420 tothe print engines 408. The virtual printer A is illustrated as utilizingprint engines 408 labeled PE1, PE2, and PE4, virtual printer B isdesignated as utilizing only print engine 408 labeled PE 3, and virtualprinter C is not printing.

Each of the print engines 408 has associated therewith in the software aphysical print engine object 426, labeled PPE1, PPE2, PPE3 and PPE4,respectively. The physical print engine objects 426 provide control ofthe engine. All access to the print engines 408 is controlled throughthe PPEs 426 that are associated therewith. The PPE 426 is responsiblefor maintaining real-time status of the print engine and is alsooperable to isolate the associated print engine 408 from the remainderof the system. This permits different types of print engines to havedifferent PPEs. New engine types can be added to the system by simplydeveloping new PPEs. The PPE 426 maintains the physical link to theengine. A logical link is also maintained by the engine allocator 422.In this manner, if the user physically switches cables, the logical linkis maintained.

Each of the PPEs 426 drives a kernel device engine 428. These arecreated during system utilization to develop kernel mode device objectsfor each printer port, with these portions then registered in the systemhardware register. These kernel objects are different from PPEs. Duringinitialization, it is a function of the engine allocator 422 toenumerate each of these physical ports, create a PPE object, and attachone per port. Once assigned a port, the PPE object then beginscommunication with the associated physical print engine 408 through thekernel mode device engine 428 and the associated kernel mode deviceobject.

The engine allocator 422 will maintain a list of pointers into the PPEobjects and kernel mode device objects to access status functions, aswell as control functions. As such, the engine allocator 422 will beconnected to the PPEs 426 through interconnections 430, which arelogical interconnections to the virtual printers 420. With theseconnections, any routine system can request status of a physical engine408 from the engine allocator 422. When a request for real-time statusis presented to the engine allocator 422, it reads the status from thePPE 426 associated with that engine and returns to the call-in function.All status requests must go through engine allocator 422. The requestcan be made of logical as well as physical engines. The engine allocator422 maintains the logical and physical mappings of each engine.

The PPE object 426 is instantiated from a derivative from the C Printerclass. The C Printer class is the base class all printer objects arebuilt upon. In a preferred embodiment, there is only a single printerclass associated with the Canon P320 engine class. The interfacedprinter object is the same regardless of the type of physical printerthey are connected to. The PPE object isolates the rest of the systemfrom the physical device. Each time a new device is to be connected tothe system, an associated PPE class must be developed for that device.

The kernel device engines are output to a controller object 436, whichis then operable to interface a host adapter 438, there being one foreach two printers 408. This is essentially the PCI adapter describedabove.

The print engine C Printer class is, as described above, specific to theCanon P320 laser engine. This class must communicate through the kernelmode driver to the physical engine. The higher levels of communicationprotocol are implemented in this class, while the lower level layers areimplemented in the kernel device engine 428. Since the Canon P320 doesnot send any unsolicited messages, the messaging protocol between theCanon P320 class and the engine is a master/slave protocol, with theengine being the slave. However, it should be understood that solicitedmessages can be accommodated with a different engine. In the preferredembodiment, the Canon P320 class must maintain a real-time enginestatus. This is accomplished via polling the engine every three seconds.Only changes are updated during this polling interval. Each time theCanon P320 class detects that the engine has been powered on or reset,an entire status update is performed.

In order to understand the engine allocation, the concept of “jobstacks” will be further elaborated upon. A job stack is basically adynamically sized array of instructions which is delivered to the PPE426. Each entry in the array is defined by a number of variables. Thereis a Number of Copies variable, which instructs the PPE 426 to printeach page a defined number of times before moving on to the next page.There is a Begin Page variable to define when the first page of adocument is to print, and an End Page variable which defines the lastpage of the document for this instruction. A Command variable is alsoinput, which is utilized for special commands, such as printingseparation pages. In the following example in Table 6, a Command valueof “0” indicates nothing, while a Command value of “1” indicates that ajob separator page must be printed. Job stacks are dynamic and cancontain any number of entries. The example in Table 6 utilizes aten-page document that is to be printed with four copies utilizing threeengines, with a separator page between jobs feature turned on. Table 6is as follows: TABLE 6 PPE1 PPE2 PPE3 Instruction 1 1, 1, 10, 0 1, 4,10, 0 1, 7, 10, 0 Instruction 2 1, 1, 3, 0 1, 1, 6, 0 1, 1, 10, 0Instruction 3 1, 0, 0, 1 1, 0, 0,1 1, 0, 0, 1Examining the above Table 6, it can be seen that PPE1 will print onecopy of pages 1-10, followed by one copy of pages 1-3 of a documentfollowed by a job separator. PPE2 will print one copy of pages 4-10,followed by one copy of pages 4-6 followed by a job separator. PPE3 willprint one copy of pages 7-10, followed by one copy of pages 1-10,followed by a job separator. Since the printing is face-down printing,once the job is complete, the user simply takes the pages from PPE3 andstacks them on top of the pages from PPE2 (still face down), and thentakes this new stack and places it on top of the pages from PPE1 for acompleted and collated job.

The engine allocator 422 provides for Controlled Dynamic EngineAllocation. The goals of engine allocation are two-fold: provideequitable (round-robin) allocation of engines, while at the same timemaximizing the use of individual engines. Controlled engine allocationmeans that virtual printers consist of predefined sets of print enginesand cannot utilize engines outside of the set with the predetermined jobstack for a physical engine unable to be changed “on-the-fly.”

As an example, if Virtual Printer A consists of physical engines PE1 andPE2, it can never utilize physical engines PE3 or PE4, unless the systemis reconfigured. As an example, if a virtual printer consisted of threeprint engines and was presented with a one-page job, it would not beefficient to tie up all three physical engines to complete this one-pagejob. In this case, the virtual printer 420 would submit the job to theelectronic collator. The electronic collator would then return only onejob stack. Since there is only one job stack, the virtual printer 420would request only a single one of its engines. A more complicated caseto this is one that will be more common. Consider the case of twovirtual printers, Virtual Printer A and Virtual Printer B, and fourprint engines, PE1, PE2, PE3, and PE4. Virtual Printer A consists ofphysical engines PE1 and PE2, while Virtual Printer B consists ofphysical engines PE2 and PE3. If a 100-page job is assumed, which100-page job has been split up by the electronic collator into jobstacks of 50 pages each, it is then necessary to process these with thevirtual printers 420. If the jobs arrive at each of the virtual printersat the same time, one job for one of the virtual printers 420 and onejob for another of the virtual printers 420, since only one virtualprinter 420 can utilize PE2, the other must wait. In this case, assumethat Virtual Printer A received the job first, such that PE1 and PE2 areprinting the job for Virtual Printer A. If there were no dynamicallocations provided by the engine allocator 422, PE3 would remain idleuntil PE2 was released. This is not desirable, since there may be morejobs behind the two mentioned, and PE3 is sitting idle, i.e., systemresources are not being utilized at their maximum potential. If a userwalked up to the console, he would then see several jobs waiting and anengine sitting idle.

In the controlled dynamic allocation provided by the engine allocator422, the following sequence of events would occur. First, engines PE1and PE2 would begin printing their 50-page job stacks for VirtualPrinter A. Engine PE3 would begin printing its 50-page job stacks forVirtual Printer B for the portion that has been designated to be printedby PE3. At a later time, PE1, PE2, and PE3 would complete their jobstacks at about the same time. Once PE2 is released from Virtual PrinterA, it can then begin printing its job stack that was designated forbeing printed by Virtual Printer B. At this point, engines PE1 and PE3are available for other jobs, thus maximizing throughput. An importantrule to note is that PE2 will print its jobs for Virtual Printer B intheir entirety. Although it may seem more efficient to send a portion ofthe PE2 job stack to PE3 once it is released, this may not be the mostefficient method for a given mode, since this would mean splitting thePE2 job stack real-time and printing part of it on PE2 and part of it onPE3. This does not provide significant advantages and can cause somecollation problems when a user stacks the documents after the job hasbeen completed. If additional jobs are waiting, the engine usage is thesame and no benefit is gained. If this approach were taken, the stackingorder would be disrupted in an unpredictable manner for the user, sincethe PE2 job stack is partially printed on PE3. However, with the use ofpage separators and indicators, this could be achieved. Further, if amore sophisticated finishing system other than a user stacking documentswere utilized, this could be facilitated.

Each virtual printer is allowed to only have one request into the engineallocator 422 at a time. If the engine allocator 422 receives a requestfrom a virtual printer that has already queued a request, then therequest fails immediately. The requesting virtual printer must passseveral bits of information to the engine allocator. For each physicalengine the virtual printer wishes to utilize, it must supply a handlefor the physical printer (this was obtained by performing logical tophysical mapping), and a handle of an event object to signal when theengine is available. This is information that is passed in as a pointerto a list of request structures in the engine allocator 422.

It is the task of the virtual printer 420 to create a “thread” to passthe job stack to the PPE 426, these threads illustrated in FIG. 15. Thisthread will wait on an event that is signaled by the engine allocator.The engine allocator 422 will take the request and sort it into aseparate queue for each physical engine. As soon as an engine becomesavailable, the engine takes the next request out of the queue andsignals the event object via a SetEvent. If the SetEvent function failsand the engine allocator 424 assumes the virtual printer 420 no longerrequests the engine, the engine allocator 422 will move on to the nextrequest in that queue. There is a separate queue for each physicalprinter PE1-PE4, and the queues are independent of each other. Eachqueue entry will consist of a handle for the virtual printer ID and thehandle for the event handle.

Once the virtual printer has completed a job stack on a particularprinter, it must then free the physical printer by calling anengine-free handle. At this point, the engine allocator 422 will move onto the next request in that engine's queue.

Engines in an Error state are treated no differently by the engineallocator 422. It is the task of the virtual printer 420 to decide whatto do with an engine in an Error state. Virtual printers can stillrequest and be granted use of the physical engines in the Error state.If the virtual printer has no use of an engine in an Error state, it canthen release this physical engine back to the system immediately. If thevirtual printer determines that the Error condition will be corrected,then it can hang on to the engine and release it later. A virtualprinter does not have to request all of its physical engines to print ajob. If a virtual printer 420 is configured with three physical enginesand only receives two job stacks back from the electronic collator, thenit has the ability to only request two engines from the engineallocator.

Referring now to FIG. 16, there is illustrated a flowchart depicting theengine allocation operation for setting up the requests in the queue.This is initiated at a block 440 and then proceeds to a block 442 todetermine if a request has been received from a virtual printer. If not,the program will flow back to the input thereof from the “N” path. If arequest has been received, the program will flow to a decision block 444to determine if there is an existing request for that virtual printer inthe queue. If so, the program will flow along a “Y” path to a block 446to fail the request and then back to the input of decision block 442 towait for another request from a virtual printer. If this is the onlyrequest by the virtual printer and it is not currently serving a requestfrom a virtual printer, the program will flow from decision block 444along the “N” path to a function block 440 to receive the handle foreach print engine defined as being associated with the virtual printer.The program will then flow to the function block 450 to receive theevent object and then to a function block 452 to queue the request foreach print engine. The program will then flow back to the input ofdecision block 442.

Referring now to FIG. 17, there is illustrated a flowchart depicting aportion of the engine allocation operation associated with servicing therequest in the queue. This is initiated at a block 454 and then proceedsto a function block 456 to service the request in the queue for a givenone of the engines. The program will then flow to a decision block 458if the SetEvent has failed. If the SetEvent function fails, then theengine allocator will assume that the virtual printer no longer requeststhe engine and will flow along the “Y” path. If it has not failed, thisindicates that the virtual printer still has possession of theassociated physical print engine and then flows along a “N” path todecision block 460 to receive the FreeEngine handle from the virtualprinter. This handle is generated once the virtual printer has completeda job stack on a particular printer. If not, the program will flow alongthe “N” path back to the input of decision block 450. If the engine isdetermined to be free, the program will flow along the “Y” path to afunction block 462 to service the next request. The “Y” path fromdecision block 458 will also flow to the input of function block 462.After servicing the request, the program will flow back to the input offunction block 456.

Referring now to FIG. 18, there is illustrated a flowchart depicting aportion of the engine allocation operation associated with the statusrequest. This is initiated at a function block 464 and then flows to adecision block 466 to determine if a request for status information on agiven print engine has been received. If not, the program will flow backto the input of decision block 466. If so, the program will flow along a“Y” path to a function block 468 to retrieve the status of the printengine and then to a function block 470 to forward the status to thecalling routine. The program will then flow back to the input ofdecision block 466.

Referring now to FIG. 19, there is illustrated a flowchart for theresource allocator. The program is initiated at a block 472 and thenflows to a decision block 474 to determine if a request has beenreceived from the PPE object. If so, the program will flow along a “Y”path to a decision block 476 to determine if there is available memory.If not, the program will flow along an “N” path to a function block 478to instruct the engine allocator 422 to queue requests until memory isfreed. If memory is available, the program will flow from the decisionblock 476 to a function block 480 to decrement the available memory andthen back to the input of decision block 474.

If decision block 474 had determined that no request was received fromthe PPE, the program will flow along the “N” path to a decision block482 in order to determine if an indication has been made that memory wasfreed from one of the PPEs. If not, the program will flow along the “N”path back to the input decision block 474. However, if additional memoryhad been freed from one of the PPEs, the program will flow to a functionblock 484 to increment the memory and then to a function block 486 tosend an instruction to the queue. Basically, when a job stack isforwarded for printing and memory is unavailable, the resource allocatorwill place that job in a queue and it will remain in the queue until thememory is available. When the memory is available, the queue is servedon a first-in-first-out basis. The program will then flow back to theinput of decision block 474.

Referring now to FIG. 20, there is illustrated a block diagram of aprior art interface for a conventional PCI bus. CPU 490 is typicallyprovided at the heart of any computing system. This typically willinterface through a system bus 492 to a PCI device 494, which theninterfaces to a PCI bus 496. The system bus 492 is typically a 64-bitbus, whereas the PCI bus 496 is a 32-bit bus. The PCI bus operates witha PCI protocol at a rate of 132 MegaByte/s. The PCI bus 496 is theninterfaced with a PCI interface device 498 to an I/O bus 500. This theninterfaces through an I/O chip 502 in a conventional manner to aparallel cable 504 and then to a printer 506. Thereafter, the printeroperates in a normal convention. This normal convention is that theparallel cable is interfaced through an I/O device 508 to output data toan internal printer RIP 510 which rasterizes the data and outputs it toa memory 512 for subsequent input to the marking engine 514. This,again, is conventional in the printer 506. The PCI device 494 isbasically configured of a PCI chip set which is conventional forconverting the data and control information on the system bus toinformation in the PCI protocol. The PCI interface 498 is basically abus mastering/bus interface. In the present invention, this utilizes aPLX9060, manufactured by PLX Technology. In effect, PCI interface 498and the overall PCI protocol allows data to be accepted in large bursts,thus providing relatively high throughput for data as compared to ageneral parallel I/O system. However, in the prior art system of FIG.20, the RIP 510 is disposed in each printer 506, such that a PCIinterface 498 is required for each printer and the data must betransferred to the printer in the form of a multi-page document, RIPPEDin the printer and then output to the marking engine 514.

Referring now to FIG. 21, there is illustrated a simplified blockdiagram of the interface of the present invention. A PCI interfacedevice 516, similar to the PCI interface 498 in that it utilizes thesame chip, is provided for interfacing with a PCI bus 518. The PCIinterface then is shared by two host adapters 518 for two differentprinters 520. The host adapter 518 interfaces with a proprietary cable522 and then to a print adapter 524, which is then interfaced to theprinter 520. The print adapter 524 basically controls transfer of datafrom the cable 522 to the printer and controls the operations of theprinter through various control/status lines. Status information can bereturned from the printer to the PCI bus 518.

Referring now to FIG. 22, there is illustrated a block diagram of thehost adapter. The PCI interface 516 is operable to interface data fromthe PCI bus 518 to an intermediate bus 526 which is a 32-bit bus. Thedata is then input to a FIFO 528, which FIFO 528 is operable to receivethe data at a 32-bit word length and output the data at an 8-bit wordlength on an 8-bit bus 530. This is essentially a double word (32-bit)to byte (8-bit) funneling FIFO. The order of the double word to bytefunneling is least significant, D7:0, first, D15:8 next, D23:16 next,and D31:24 last. The D31:0 bits have a 1-to-1 correspondence to AD31:0of the PCI bus. Implicit in this process is that all image data (even ifit is compressed image data) must be transferred to the host adapter inmultiples of double words. The 8-bit bus 530 is then input to a set ofdrivers 532 which will then drive the cable interface 534 to output dataon a data bus 536, which forms a portion of the cable 522. Additionally,control status information is transferred over a plurality of thecontrol/status lines 538 wherein directional drivers 540 are providedfor interfacing with a UART 542. The UART is then operable to interfacewith a status control block 544 to interface with the bus 526 to allowcommunication of the status control information between the PCI and thecontrol/status lines 538. A timer 546 is provided for controlling thetiming functions for the system. The differential drivers and receiversutilized in the host adapter are the type DS903C031 and DS903C032,respectively. These devices are manufactured by National Semiconductor.The cable interface 534 is a 50 position AMP 0.8 mm CHAMP, Part No.78796-1, with a cable 522 being a custom 16 individually shieldedtwister pair cable of eight meter length.

Referring now to FIG. 24, there is illustrated a block diagram for theprint adapter 524. The cable 522 is interfaced through a driver/receiver550 to a FIFO 552. The FIFO 552 is operable to provide an elasticstorage capability which is then input to an internal data bus 554. Theinternal data bus 554 then interfaces with an unpacker/unloader 556,which is operable to retrieve the data from the FIFO 552 and thendecompress this data. The entire operation is controlled by a CPU 560,which CPU 560 is operable to control the number of bits per pixel in theunpacking operation. This is then input to a transform block 558, whichtransform block 558 is operable to perform a calibration adjustment. Aswill be described hereinbelow, the engines in a given virtual printerare “color balanced.” In order to do this, each engine is calibrated andcompared to an internal master color space. The data that is transferredto the FIFO 552 is formatted in this master color space. Any aberrationsof the printer due to parameters associated with a given engine that mayyield to wear, etc., can be compensated for in this calibrationprocedure. Once calibration is complete, a look-up table 562 is loadedwith calibration information, which calibration information is thenutilized by the transform block 558 to correct the color space. Thisdata is then input to the marking engine 514.

The CPU 560 also interfaces with the marking engine 514 through acontrol/status bus 564. This control/status information can then be readby the CPU 560 to a UART 566, which interfaces with the cable 522through the driver/receiver 550. Control information can then betransferred between the cable 522 and the CPU 560, such that the markingengine 514 can be controlled and status information requested from themarking engine 514.

Each print adapter connects to a host adapter using a custom cableassembly that consists of 16 individually shielded balanced twisted pairconductors (one unused pair). No. Of Input/Output Name Pairs(^(@)HostAdapter) PxD7:0 8 Out: Date PCLKx 1 Out: Clock PWEx 1 Out:Printer Write Enable HTXDx 1 Out: Host Tx (status) HRXDx 1 In: Host Rx(status) PAFx 1 In: Printer Almost Full Flag EOPx 1 In: End of Plane(Data extracted out for page - used for page sync) FLUSHx 1 Out: Resetsstate of print adapter 15x => A or BHostAdapter to PrintAdapter Cable Differential Pair Definitions

-   -   PxD7:0+    -   PxD7:0—Printer Image Data, D7 is MSB, D0 is LSB, sense is        positive true, and is clocked into the PrintAdapter buffer FIFO        on the positive transition PCKx.    -   PCKx+    -   PCKx—Printer Buffer FIFO Load Clock, used to clock image data        into PrintAdapter Buffer FIFO. Setup and hold times of image        data are reference to the positive transition of this signal.    -   PAFx+

PAFx—Printer Buffer FIFO Almost Full Flag, sense is negative true. TheHostAdapter will stop transmitting data and de-assert PWEx within 4positive transitions of PCKx.

-   -   PWEx+

PWEx—Printer Buffer FIFO Write Enable, sense is negative true. Thissignal is used to enable the loading of a synchronous FIFO on thePrintAdapter with image data. When this signal is asserted, image datashould be accepted by the PrintAdapter on the positive transition ofPCKx.

-   -   HTXDx+    -   HTXDx—HostAdapter Asynchronous Start/Stop Transmit Data, sense        is positive true, i.e., the start bit is a logical flow. The        asynchronous data rate is 9600 Baud. The form is one stop bit        and no parity.    -   HRXDx+    -   HRXDx—HostAdapter Asynchronous Start/Stop Receive Data, sense is        positive true, i.e., the start bit is a logical low. The        asynchronous data rate is 9600 Baud. The form is one stop bit        and no parity.    -   EOPx+    -   EOPx—End of Plane Pulse, sense is positive true. Asserting this        signal for at least 3 positive transitions of PCKx will result        in an interrupt being generated on the PCI bus by the        HostAdapter (interrupt support logic must have the EOP interrupt        unmasked).    -   FLUSH+    -   FLUSH—Printer Buffer FIFO and Support Circuitry Reset, sense is        negative true. This signal should be used by the PrintAdapter to        flush the image data FIFO and to re-initialize image generation        circuitry.

Referring now to FIG. 24, there is illustrated a timing diagramillustrating a typical host adapter unload sequence. The frequency ofthe clock is 13.75 Megahertz.

As will be described hereinbelow, there is a command FLUSHx, which is anoutput from the system to the printer that is operable to reset thestate of the print adapter. This is utilized for a situation where thereis no page synchronization. The FLUSH operation is operable to flush theFIFO 552 in the print adapter between pages, such that there is a cleanstate. This occurs at the end of a plane (or page) after the EOPx signalis generated by the print adapter. With page synchronization, on theother hand, information is provided that indicates that the FIFO 552 isflushed and the print adapter is ready to receive a new page ofinformation. Page synchronization also provides for counting the numberof pages to determine how many pages have been printed. If a page is notreceived in a predetermined amount of time, then an Error condition isgenerated. At the EOPx, the system then looks at the FIFO 552 todetermine if it is empty. If it is not empty, this indicates that allthe information has not been transferred from the FIFO and, thus, anerror is indicated. In any event, this indicates to the system that agiven page has not been printed and either this page needs to bereprinted or sent to another engine. In order to facilitate this pagesynchronization, of course, it is necessary to know what the status ofthe printed page is when the end-of-page signal is generated. If pagesynchronization is not utilized, the FLUSH signal is utilized to ensurethat an error occurring on one page does not carry over to the nextpage.

Referring now to FIG. 25, there is illustrated a block diagram of aprior art method for handling color spaces. CPU 580 is provided whichinterfaces with a number of different color devices, a scanner 582, adisplay 584, a film recorder 586 and a printer 588. Due to colorbalancing, most systems have used what are referred to as “deviceprofiles” which resulted from a color management system specificationthat was created by the International Color Consortium (ICC). Thesedevice profiles are typically generated by the manufacturer, or in somecases, by the user, which describes the color characters of a particulardevice. Therefore, each of the devices 582-588 would have a deviceprofile associated therewith, which is stored in a block 590. Thesedevice profiles are provided for allowing an input from a scanner 582 toeither be displayed on display 584 or to be printed on printer 588, witha translation being performed therebetween that utilizes the colorindependent space as the intermediate. The actual transformation isperformed by the CPU 580, which reads the device profile link andperforms the mathematics necessary to transform from one native space toanother. This, of course, occurs on the user's machine and it results ina significant speed impediment.

Referring now to FIG. 26, there is illustrated a block diagram of theprior art process flow. The input device that is being mapped to theoutput device is illustrated as having a first color space in a block592. This is then mapped through the device one color profile in a block594 to a master color space, the XYZ color space, in a block 596. Thisis then mapped through the device two color profile in a block 598 tothe device two color space, in a block 600. At this point, the colorspace should be acceptable for printing and it is then routed to theprinter through the RIP 602 and to the marking engine 604. However, itis noted that this must be performed prior to the RIP operation, whichRIP will rasterize each of the pages for input to the marking engine604. However, there is one significant disadvantage to this type ofoperation when processing pages in accordance with the multiple printingvirtual print engine concept described hereinabove. This is the factthat, first, the operation is performed prior to rasterization and,second, that it must be performed for each page; that is, each time ajob is created and sent to the printer, the translation must beperformed. Further, when utilizing multiple printers, as in the presentsystem, then this matching or balancing must be performed for eachprinter. This creates some difficulties, in that the printers are notnecessarily defined prior to the RIP operation but, rather, after thepages are ripped and stored.

Referring now to FIG. 27, there is illustrated a block diagram of thebalancing method of the present invention. The input device exists inthe device one color space, as represented by a block 606. This ismapped to a system color space in a block 607 through a color matchingalgorithm in a block 608. This matching algorithm is basically thatdescribed above with respect to the operations performed between blocks592 and 600 in FIG. 26; that is, device one color space is firstconverted to the master color space, the XYZ color space, and thenmapped from the XYZ color space to the system color space in block 607.The system color space, in the present invention, is basically thedevice profile of the generic printer that is utilized in the system.Therefore, if the Canon C320 engine were utilized in the system, thenthat would constitute the system color space. Therefore, the device onecolor space would be mapped through its device one color space to themaster color space and then through the Canon C320 color profile to thesystem color space. This constitutes a reference color space. Of course,if all of the engines are calibrated and operated identical, then anyengine in any Canon C320 engine on the system would print identical toanother. However, this is not the case, since all engines print slightlydifferent. As such, each would have a slightly different color profilewhich would have to either be iteratively determined or defined by themanufacturer. This is difficult if not impossible to implement.

In the present system, the system color space is defined as being thatfor a standard printer, which is defined prior to the RIP operation.During the RIP operation, in the preferred embodiment, the colormatching operation performed is a part of the RIP operation, such thatafter going through a RIP operation, as illustrated by a block 610,there will be rasterized images for each page of a document that havebeen color balanced to the system color space. This rasterized imagewill then be routed to the desired engine via the methods describedhereinabove with respect to the virtual printers and physical printengine objects, etc. The marking engines in FIG. 27 are illustrated asbeing three marking engines 612, 614 and 616. Each of the engines612-616 has associated therewith a color mapping block 618, 620 and 622,respectively. Each of these color mapping blocks 618-622 is operable toadjust the color of the bit mapped image that is forwarded thereto toaccount for aberrations in the marking engines 612-616 as compared tothe standard engine which was utilized to generate the device profileused to convert all color spaces to the system color space. This colormapping function is a calibrated function, which will be describedhereinbelow. This is facilitated with the use of the lookup table 562described herein above with reference to FIG. 23.

The color mapping devices 618-622 allow each of the engines 612-616 tobe mapped to the system color space after the RIP operation. The mappingprocess, as will be described in more detail hereinbelow, first rendersthe engines linear in response, such that similar changes in density areachieved for similar changes in data. This is a combination of aninternal linearization algorithm that runs on power up and an additionallinearization added. This process utilizes a manual gamma calibrationwhich is facilitated by setting the lookup table to a 1:1 ratio with nocalibration difference between the system color space and that of theprinter and then running a test pattern therethrough. The test patternis then examined with a calorimeter to determine if the printed imagerepresents the image that should have been printed. If not, an offset isdetermined and stored in the lookup table. For contone images, there aretypically 256 values. Each of these values can have a mapping valueassociated therewith, such that when a bit value is input to one of thecolor mapping devices 618-622, the value in the lookup table is anoutput. For example, if a value of 255 were input and the lookup tabledetermined that it should be 217, then a value of 217 would be output tothe marking engine.

Referring now to FIG. 28, there is illustrated a flowchart depicting theoperation wherein the lookup table is created. The flowchart isinitiated at a block 626 and then proceeds to a block 628 to set thelookup table to a 1:1 ratio, such that when an 8 bit value is input tothe transform block 558 of FIG. 23, the same 8 bit value is output. Theprogram then flows to a function block 630, wherein a test pattern isset to the output device and printed. This test pattern consists of fourbands of 256 steps each, each step being a different density of toner,associated with each of the expected 8 bit values. These 8 bit valuesextend from 0 to 256. In general, the 8 bit values for each of thecolors cyan, magenta, yellow are equal. The program then flows to afunction block 632, wherein this pattern is read into the colorimeter.The colorimeter is of the type X-rite DTP51 calorimeter. This is to bedistinguished from a densitometer, which measures only the reflectantsfrom a surface to determine density. The colorimeter is based uponmeasurement of wavelength and determines the percentage of the XYZspace, this being “device independent” color. As such, different devicescan have the same density reading with a densitometer, but a differentpercentage reading with the calorimeter.

The colorimeter will basically determine a value for each of the spacesand provide an output therefor. The program will then flow to a functionblock 634 to compare the output of the colorimeter to the system colorspace values that would be expected to be on the calorimeter. There is astandard table that is provided for the colormetric values that areassociated with an 8 bit input value. For example, if the maximumdensity at the 8 bit value of 255 were found associated with thatgenerated when an 8 bit value of 217 was input to the printer, then onewould expect that the generation of an 8 bit value of 217 would resultin the correct output color. This would in effect be the mappingfunction which is determined by taking the difference in a functionblock 636 and then creating the mapping values in a function block 638.These mapped values are then downloaded to the print adapter in thelookup table 562, as indicated by a function block 640, and then theprogram flows to an end block 642. For each printer, this procedure canbe followed to determine the lookup table values, which lookup tablevalues will operate on each “dot” that is to be generated by the printerand at each color. The table that is generated for the colormetricvalues is already linearized in the generation of that table, whichtable was generated in an iterative manner. The lookup table 562 inconjunction with the transform 558 can therefore provide a constraint onthe output density as a function of the bit value input.

The above noted procedure is acceptable for color balancing contoneimages, but there are some aspects of bi-level and quad-level techniquesthat may provide a problem, since the different levels are achieved byspacing dots over a given area, each of the dots generated at themaximum pixel value. Therefore, there is an additional adjustment thatis provided for bi-level and quad-level printing formats. This is anadjustment to the maximum pixel value of 255 that is generated, thisdefines the maximum density value for the printer. In order to determinehow this value is to be adjusted, a test pattern as illustrated in FIG.29 is developed. It essentially is a series of patches with the centerpatches at a location 644 being at a 50% level such that they are equalportions of cyan, magenta and yellow. These, in an ideal printer, wouldprovide a gray patch. However, if there are any aberrations in theprinter, this gray will not be true gray. The patches are adjusted, suchthat as the patterns move to the right in the center location, a patch646 will be present with 50% cyan, 51% magenta and 50% yellow. The nextpatch to the right, a patch 648, will have 50% cyan, 52% magenta and 50%yellow. If one moves to the left in the center row, the first patch, apatch 650, will have 51% cyan, 50% magenta and 51% yellow. The nextpatch in the center row, a patch 652, will have 52% cyan, 50% magentaand 52% yellow. This gradual change will be noticeable to the eye andthe user need only select which patch appears to be the true gray. Thisis then input to the system and the system makes an adjustment in apercentage of the density, which will be provided as a compensationfactor in the lookup table whenever bi-level is utilized.

Referring now to FIG. 30, there is illustrated a flowchart depicting theabove noted operation with respect to the calibration procedure forbi-level and quad-level. This program is initiated at a block 654 andthen proceeds to a block 656 to create the pattern for the bi-leveltest. The program then flows to a function block 658 to visually examinethe patches for the most perceptively gray patch. The program then flowsto a function block 660 wherein the correction factor is determined foreach color at maximum density. This correction is then stored as anoffset for maximum density at the bi-level and quad-level formats, asindicated by a function block 662. The program then flows to an endblock 664.

Referring now to FIG. 31, there is illustrated a block diagram of thesoftware RIP described hereinabove. In general, the RIP is aconventional RIP which is defined by a block 670. The RIP 670 is acommercially available RIP which is utilized to rasterize receivedpages. The particular software RIP utilized in the present invention hasthe ability to perform the RIP operation depending upon the type ofdocument that is received. If a contone image is received, it is RIPPEDin one method, a color input is RIPPED in another method, a black andwhite job is RIPPED in another manner, as is a PostScript file and a PCLfile. The RIP 670 has associated therewith on the input an input plug-inwhich is added at input plug-in 672, which is an added softwareinterface. This interfaces with the input and allows the software todefine how the RIP 670 is to be configured. There are provided amultiplicity of channels 674 that define that configuration, eachchannel defining a particular configuration, i.e., a contoneconfiguration, a black and white configuration, etc. The RIP is thenoperable to provide the rasterized pages on an output 676 whichinterface with an output plug-in 678. The RIP 670, in addition toproviding a rasterized image, also provides output information as to bitdepth, resolution, number of pixels per line, etc. This information isprovided to the output plug-in 678, which then forwards this informationto a Print Station Manager (PSM) 680. This information is utilized togenerate a page header for each page. This page header will define suchthings as the bit depth of the page, the page size, the number ofcolors, the number of planes, and the resolution, in addition toinformation regarding duplex and simplex printing. These are thecharacteristics of the particular page. This is then followed by the rawdata which defines the bit values for the bit mapping image. Theinformation associated with this raw data and the raw data are thenstored and pointers placed in the Print Station Manager to allow thisimage to be later located. This image, of course, is also associatedwith job information, such that the page number of a given job is known.The Print Station Managers can utilize this to retrieve these jobs at alater time and manipulate them in any manner in order to determine howthey will be printed, the order in which they will be printed, etc.After the Print Station Manager has received the information from theoutput plug-in 678, this information is then stored and later retrieved.A part of the PSM 680 is the electronic collator described hereinabove.This electronic collator is operable to generate virtual stacks for thedocument, which virtual stack correlates with the potential outputconfiguration of the printers, which virtual stack will be directlymapped into that output configuration. For example, if there were fourprinters with four bins, each bin disposed over one on top of the other,the virtual stack would represent the stack that results in the fourbins. In this manner, when the user pulls and stacks the contents of thebins, the stack will look identical to the virtual stack. This virtualstack is then divided up into job stacks, which are then buffered in abuffer area 682 for routing to print engines 684 under the control ofthe print engine objects (PPE) described hereinabove. A job manager 686manages the operation of this. In general, the job manager 686 works ona job stack level, whereas the PPE operates on a single page level. ThePPE, in conjunction with the resource allocator, will look at the nextinstruction in the job stack and execute that instruction by fetchingthe particular page and printing that particular page. The PPE will alsolook at status information and define if an error exists, which will berelayed to the job manager 686. The job manager 686 can then processthis error to reroute the remaining portion of the stack to a differentprinter or reroute the entire job stack to a different printer.Therefore, the job manager 686 monitors the error information and routesthe stack to the appropriate engine, if necessary.

Referring now to FIG. 32, there is illustrated a flowchart depicting theoperation of the output plug-in. The flowchart is initiated at aflowchart 686 and then flows to a function block 688 to send the jobinformation to the PSM. The program then flows to a function block 690to retrieve the page information from the RIP, which is then sent to thePSM, as indicated by the function block 692. The program then flows tothe function block 694 to retrieve a band of the raw data, this beingthe rasterized data. This band of data is essentially a small portion ofthe RIPPED page for all four color planes. This band of data is thencompressed, as indicated by a function block 696. The purpose forperforming the compression prior to forwarding to the PSM for storage isthat this PSM 680 can be facilitated at a different location andcompression facilitates throughput to a different location. Aftercompression, the program will flow to a decision 698 to determine if anyof the pixels in the different color planes are on. If so, the programwill flow to a function block 700 along a “Y” path to set a boolean forthe current color. This is essentially flagged and indicates that thereis a color present in that particular plane. If it were determined thatthe color planes did not have any pixels turned on, this would indicatethat this was a black-and-white job. If this were the case, the programwould flow along the “N” path to the output of the function block 700for all pixels in the plane. The lack of this boolean in the PSM wouldindicate that it was a black-and-white job and could therefore beprocessed in a more rapid manner. Once it is determined whether theboolean should be set or that there are no pixels on the color plane,the program will flow to a function block 702 to send the band data tothe PSM, with the information regarding the boolean. The program willthen flow to a decision block 704 to determine if there are more bands.If so, the program will flow back to the input of function block 694 toretrieve another band of data and, if not, the program will flow to afunction block 706 to send an End Page message to the PSM. The programwill then flow to a decision block 708 to determine if the job iscomplete. If not, the program will flow back to the input of functionblock 690 to get the page information for the next page. When the job isdone, the program will flow to the function block 710 to send an End ofJob message to the PSM.

In order to ascertain the toner level in each of the printer engines,the present invention utilizes a system whereby the actual rasterizedimage is evaluated as to the amount of toner that it will require. Thisis accumulated over a job stack which will be sent to a given printer.Once the job stack has been printed, an accumulation register isdecremented indicating that the toner value has decreased for thatparticular print engine. Additionally, the accumulator can be examinedprior to printing the job, but after rasterizing and determining theamount of toner that will be required, such that it can be determinedwhether there is sufficient toner available to run the print operationon that printer for that particular job stack.

Referring now to FIG. 33, there is illustrated a flowchart depicting thetoner calculation operation. The flowchart is initiated at a block 720and then proceeds to a decision block 722 to determine if a print jobhas been initiated. If not, the program will loop back around to theinput. If so, the program will flow to the function block 724 to fetch apage of information for the given job and then to a function block 726to accumulate values of pixels in that page. Each pixel will have avalue that ranges from zero to 255 and these are summed up for theentire page. The program then flows to a function block 728 to dividethe accumulated value by the total number of pixels in the page. Thiswill provide the average value. If, for example, all the pixels wereturned on to their maximum value, this average value would be 255.However, if only half of the pixels were turned on to full maximumvalue, the value would be 128. The program then flows to a functionblock 780 to define the value as a percentage of the black page. If itis 100 percent, that means all pixels are turned on to their maximumvalue. Any pixels that are turned off or have a lower value will lowerthis percentage. The program then flows to a function block 772 tocalculate the toner utilized for the given page, i.e., this percentagewill be multiplied by the maximum toner that will be required for thatpage for each color plane. It should be noted that in a color printerthere are four toners, cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The toner usagefor each plane will be calculated, such that if a given one of the tonercartridges for a given color is depleted, this can be indicated.

After the toner use for a given page is calculated, the program willflow to a decision block 780 to determine if the last page in the jobhas been processed. If not, the program will flow along a “N” path to afunction block 782 to increment the job toner value, this being thetotal toner utilized for a given job. This will be divided up into thejob stacks, as the job stacks are the smallest number of pages that willbe sent to one of the multiple printers during a print job, the multipleprinters defining the virtual printer. The program will then flow to theinput of function block 724 to fetch the next page.

After the last page of the job, the program will flow along a “Y” pathto a function block 784 to set the total toner value equal to theprevious toner total value minus the job toner value, and the programwill then flow to a decision block 786 to determine if the total tonervalue is less than a minimum value. If not, the program will flow to afunction block 788, print the job, and then back to the input ofdecision block 722. If the total toner value is determined to havedecreased below a minimum value, the program will flow to a functionblock 790 to send a toner low command to the user. The program will thenflow to a function block 792 to reset the total toner value equal to thetotal toner value plus the job toner value, i.e., the value beforefunction block 784. The program will then flow to an end block 794.Along this path to the N block 794, the printer will be inhibited fromprinting that particular job stack. Once this error signal is returnedto the job manager, the job manager can then generate an overall defaultor it can merely reroute the job to another one of the printers definedin the virtual printer with an error separator page provided thereby.

In general, the provision of the accumulated total toner value in aregister provides, in effect, a “gas gauge” or “toner gauge” for a giventoner module. This total toner value will be reset when a new toner isplaced in the system. It will be reset to a value that approximates theknown toner level. Additionally, characteristics of the toner module andthe toner associated therewith in combination with the characteristicsof the print engine will be utilized to calculate the amount of tonerthat is deposited on a sheet of paper with all pixels on to theirmaximum value. This is relatively easy to determine by runningcontinuous pages through the printer until the toner has depleted to avalue that is below an acceptable level. This will provide the totalamount of toner output for a given number of pages, which will beproportional to that for a single page. This can then be divided down bythe determined average value. This provides a significant advantage, inthat it is an actual value, as opposed to an estimated value based uponthe input print job. This is facilitated due to the fact that therasterized image for each page in the job is collected prior to the jobbeing printed. By comparison, conventional systems would have no methodfor determining usage of toner, since the rasterized image is developedin the printer after the processing section.

In an alternate mode of operation, the toner level determination can beutilized to make a determination as to whether to print a particularpage. This determination is made as a function of either the cost of adocument or the level of toner in a particular print engine. In a firstexample, consider a large document that has multiple colors associatedtherewith. The user can input information as to cost of the toner as acriteria for printing. If the amount of toner can be determined prior toprinting, then the amount of toner required for a particular job can bedetermined. With information as to the amount of toner required and thecost of the toner, the total cost of the job can be determined prior toactually printing the job. If the cost is too great, then the printingoperation can be terminated. This can only be facilitated by a systemthat can make a fairly accurate estimation of the amount of toner thatis required for a particular job.

In a second example, consider a situation wherein there is a printingjob that is ongoing and there is a determination made that the toner hasfallen below an acceptable level. At this point, the print job can beterminated at that engine and the remainder of the job routed to anotherprinter, or the entire job can be rerouted to another printer. This canonly be facilitated with a sysem that has the capability to determinetoner usage coupled with a system that can dynamically reroute pages tobe printed.

In a third example, the determined toner level can be utilized to setthe number of pages to be printed. When the job is evaluated prior toprinting to determine the toner requirements, then the remaining tonerfor the target printer is compared to the total toner required. If thereis insufficient toner available for the total job, then only the numberof pages for which there is available toner will be printed. This canonly be facilitated with a system that has the ability to print selectpages after a determination of toner requirement is made.

Referring now to FIG. 34, there is illustrated a block diagram depictinga power on sequence, which is initiated at a block 796 and then proceedsto a decision block 798. Decision block 798 determines whether a poweron condition has occurred, i.e., whether the system has been turned on.If not, the program will flow back to the input of decision block 790and, if so, the program will flow to a function block 800 to set avariable “x” equal to “1.” The program will then flow to a functionblock 802 to turn on engine “X” and then to decision block 804 todetermine if a timeout has occurred. This program will loop back to theinput of decision block 804 for approximately 10 to 15 seconds. At thistime, the program will flow to a decision block 806 to determine if thevalue of “x” is equal to a maximum value. If not, the program flows to afunction block 808 to increment the value of “x” and then back to theinput of function block 802. When the value of “x” has reached itsmaximum value, the program will flow along the “Y” path to the input ofdecision block 798.

The power-on sequence is utilized to minimize power requirements formultiple print engines with multiple fusers. These fusers utilize heaterlamps that have low resistance characteristics when the filaments arecold. Therefore, when the filaments are initially powered, a currentsurge will result from a cold start. As soon as the lamp filamenttemperature climbs appreciably, only several seconds or less, thecurrent through the lamp stabilizes. The initial current pulse is muchgreater than the average current at a given temperature. Multiple (twoor more) lamps on a single circuit could blow a breaker if the lamps areall started at the same time from a cold start. By sequencing thepower-on operation, the software can control each of the engines, sincethe print adapter allows control/status information to be transferredbetween the printer and the processing section.

Referring now to FIG. 35, there is illustrated a flowchart depicting themerge operation, which is initiated at a block 810 and then proceeds toa decision block 812 to determine if the merge operation is to beperformed. A merge operation, as described briefly hereinabove, is anoperation wherein the Print Station Manager determines that two or morejobs are to be merged. Since the pages have already been rasterized andstored, it is not necessary to go through the RIP operation again. It ismerely necessary to recreate a virtual job stack inserting theappropriate pages from one job into another job in the appropriatelocation. Of course, it must be understood that these are rasterizedimages. Of interest is the fact that these pages have associatedtherewith different printer characteristics. For example, a 600×600 DPIjob could be merged with a 600×1200 DPI job. Since each page hasassociated therewith its own resolution, bit depth, page size, etc., thePrint Station Manager need only send the job stack to a given printerwith the PPE object then controlling the operation via the page. Sincethe command information is associated with the page, each page can betreated differently by the PPE object and the print engine. Therefore, aprint engine could print one page at the 600×600 DPI level and thefollowing page at the 600×1200 DPI level. Even in the event that a colorpage were mixed with a black-and-white page, the color page would besent to the color printer, followed by the black-and-white page sent tothe same color printer (although separate printers could be utilizedwith automatic finishing steps described hereinbelow), such that thecolor printer will first perform a color operation followed by ablack-and-white operation.

Once the merge operation has been determined, the program will flowalong a “Y” path to a function block 814 to receive the documents andpages to merge and the order thereof, this determined by the PrintStation Manager. The program will then flow to a function block 816 toassemble the virtual job stack with the merge documents. This willcreate a hybrid job. The hybrid job and the associated virtual stackwill then be divided into individual job stacks for the engines and thenforwarded to the job manager and the printer, as indicated by functionblock 818. The program will then flow to the end block 819, as theremaining portion of the system in the form of the PPI objects and thekernel device drivers will take care of the printing at that time.

Referring now to FIG. 36, there is illustrated a flowchart depicting thestack control, which is initiated at a block 820 and then flows to afunction block 822. The function block 822 creates the virtual stack andthen the program flows to a function block 824 to define the job stackfor each of the engines. This essentially defines the borders betweenengines. The program then flows to a function block 826 to transfer thejob stacks to the PPE object and then the program flows to a decisionblock 828 to determine if an error has occurred. This error is an errorthat has been returned by the engine, which is handled by the PPE objectand then is relayed to the job manager. If the error occurs, the programwill flow along a “Y” path to a function block 830 to create a separatorpage and then to a function block 832 in order to attach the separatorpage to the remaining portion of the error job stack, the error jobstack being that portion left over after the generation of the error,including the page that did not get printed, if this is the case. Theprogram will then flow to a function block 834, move the error job stackto another printer in the virtual printer set, such that the printoperation can be completed. The program will then flow to a decisionblock 836 to determine if the print operation is done. The decisionblock 828, when an error has been determined not to have occurred, willalso flow to the input of decision block 836. If the job is not done,the program will flow along an “N” path back to the input of the errordecision block 828 which will continue until all pages are printed. Atthis time, the program will flow from decision block 836 back to theinput of function block 822.

It can be seen that this system automatically determines errors and,upon determination of an error, can automatically change theconfiguration of the system, such that a given job stack can be routedto a different printer. It is only necessary to create some type ofseparator page to indicate to an operator that an error has occurred andhow the job is to be assembled.

Referring now to FIG. 37, there is illustrated a flowchart depicting apage synchronization operation. Page synchronization is an operationwhereby planes of color for each page are evaluated as to theircompleteness. When a complete plane has been printed, the next plane canbe printed. If, for some reason, a given plane is not completelyprinted, it is possible that the system will go out of synchronization,such that the data for the next plane will be disposed behind that planeand will be sent to the FIFO in the print adapter. Therefore, it isnecessary to know that all planes are being printed in a given printjob, due to the speed of printing. Otherwise, a very large job could bedestroyed.

The page synchronization operation of FIG. 37 is initiated at functionblock 840 and then proceeds to a function block 842 to check the statussignal received from the print adapter. The program then flows to adecision block 844 to determine if the page transmitted is complete. Ifnot, the program will flow to a decision block 846 to determine if anerror signal has been received, indicating that a problem has occurredand the page was not completely printed upon the generation of an EOP(End Of Plane) signal. If the EOP signal has not been received and anerror signal has not been received, the program will flow to the inputof function block 842 to again check the status. This will continueuntil an error is determined, at which time the program will flow fromdecision block 846 to a default block 848 and, when the page is completewith no error, the program will flow to a function block 850 to send anew page for processing.

Referring now to FIG. 38, there is illustrated a flowchart for theoperation in the print adapter. The print adapter is initiated atfunction block 852 to receive the page and then flows to a functionblock 854 to process this rasterized data through the FIFO. The programthen flows to a decision block 856 to determine if an EOP signal hasbeen generated. If not, the program will continue back to the input offunction block 854. When the EOP signal has been generated, the programwill flow along a “Y” path to a function block 858 to examine thecontents of the FIFO. If the page has been completely printed, the FIFO858 would be empty. This will be determined by decision block 860. Ifnot empty, the program will flow to a function block 862 to generate anerror signal and, if so, the program will flow to a return block 864 andtransfer EOP signal out with no error.

Referring now to FIG. 39, there is illustrated a block diagram of analternate embodiment of the present invention. Documents are initiallyinput to the software RIP as described above, represented by a block866. The program then flows to a page store operation 868, which isoperable to store the rasterized pages, which are then distributed bydistributor 870, this being the operation described above with respectto the Print Station Manager and the job manager, in addition to the PPEobjects. The distributor 870 is basically operable to develop thevirtual stacks and the job stacks and configure them for routing to amultiplicity of print engines 872. The engines 872 are as describedabove and can be any type of engines, i.e., color, black-and-white, etc.The distributor is controlled by the distributor control 876, which isoperable to determine how the virtual stacks set in the virtual stackqueue 874 are divided up into job stacks and routed to the various printengines 872. This is normally done as described above. The output of theprint engines 872 are input to an automatic finishing device 878. Theautomatic finishing device 878 is a device that will automaticallyretrieve the contents of the print engines 872 and buffer them in amanner that they will automatically determine how the contents of theengines 872 are to be collated into the finished job output. Each of theprint engines 872 also provides status/control information on lines 880,which status/control information can return error information back tothe distributor control 876. The distributor control 876 is operable toconfigure the automatic finishing device 878 and also reconfigure theautomatic finishing device 878. For example, if the distributor control876 had determined a particular routing configuration for the job stacksand one of the print engines 872 failed, the distribution control couldredefine the job stacks and reconfigure the automatic finishing device878. This, therefore, allows the system to run multiple jobs through bydividing them into job stacks and then treating each of the job stacksas individual entities and queuing them up and processing themindependent of how fast another job stack in a given job is processedthrough an adjacent print engine. The automatic finishing device 878will retrieve the output and place it in the proper order.

Referring now to FIG. 40, there is illustrated a flowchart depicting theoperation of the device of FIG. 39. The program is initiated at a block882 and then proceeds to a decision block 884. The decision block 884determines if a new job is printed. If so, the program flows to afunction block 884 to queue the instructions for the printer and then toa function block 886 to create ajob separator with a finish code, thisseparator providing a code that can be read by the automatic finishingdevice 878. This could be as simple as a bar code. The program thenflows to a function block 888 to execute the instructions in the jobstack for a given printer and then to a function block 890 to fetch agiven page and print it in accordance with the PPE object. The programthen flows to a decision block 892 to determine if an error hasoccurred. If not, the program flows to a decision block 894 to determineif the instruction execution has been completed. If not, the programwill flow back to the input of function block 890. If so, the programwill flow to a decision block 896 to determine if the last instructionhas been received. If not, the program flows to decision block 898 tofetch the next instruction and then back to the input of function block888. When the last instruction has been received, the program flowsalong the “Y” path back to the input of decision block 884.

If a new job has not been received, the program will flow along a “node”path from decision block 884 around function blocks 885 and 886.Additionally, when an error has been defined, the program will flow fromdecision block 892 to a function block 900 to requeue the operation,i.e., send it to a different print engine 872.

The automatic finishing machine 878 can be reconfigured by thedistribution control 876 or, it can merely act in response to separatorpages that are provided for each job stack. This will then merelyrequire an individual manually moving the stacks from the print engineoutput bin to the automatic finishing device 878. Alternatively, theautomatic finishing machine 878 could automatically extract the outputfrom each of the print engines 872 and assemble it in accordance withthe information received from the distribution control 876.

Although the preferred embodiment has been described in detail, itshould be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterationscan be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention as defined by the appended claims.

1. A method for determining if the amount of toner required to render aprint job using a given print engine at the location of the given printengine is available at the given print engine at the location of thegiven print engine wherein prior information about a toner level of atoner cartridge from which toner is supplied to the rendering operationat the given print engine at the location of the given print engine isstored in a toner level register as a toner level value, comprising thesteps of: accumulating as an accumulated image value toner values,expressed as an incremental value ranging from zero to a maximum value,of substantially all the pixels in a rasterized image prior to sendingthe rasterized image to the location of the given print engine;decrementing the current toner level value in the toner level registerby the accumulated image value for the given print engine at thelocation of the given print engine and maintaining this value, if acomparison of the accumulated image value with the toner level value forthe given print engine at the location of the given print engine priorto this step of decrementing indicates that the toner level value priorto this step of decrementing minus the accumulated image value isgreater than a minimum toner level value associated with the given printengine at the location of the given print engine; and sending therasterized image to the given print engine at the location of the givenprint engine for rendering only if the decremented toner level valueassociated therewith has been determined to be greater than the minimumtoner level.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:sending the print job to an alternative print engine at an alternativeassociated printing location for rendering if the accumulated imagevalue is greater than the current toner level value associated with thegiven print engine at the location of the given print engine minus theminimum toner level.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step ofaccumulating comprises the steps of: expressing the toner value of eachpixel in the rasterized image as one of a plurality of incremental unitshaving values from zero to maximum toner usage for a pixel; andaccumulating the toner values for all of the non-zero-valued pixels inthe rasterized image.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step ofdecrementing comprises the steps of: comparing the accumulated valuewith the current toner level value in the toner level register for thegiven print engine at the location of the given print engine; andsubtracting the accumulated value from the current toner level value inthe toner level register for the given print engine at the location ofthe given print engine if it is greater than the current toner levelvalue in the toner level register for the given print engine at thelocation of the given print engine minus the minimum toner level.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the step of accumulating comprises the stepsof: determining an average pixel value for the pixels of the rasterizedimage; defining the toner required for rendering the rasterized image asa percentage of a maximum toner usage page wherein each pixel in arasterized image for a maximum toner usage page has a maximum value; anddetermining as the accumulated image value the defined toner required asthe percentage of the maximum toner usage page.
 6. The method of claim5, wherein the step of decrementing comprises the steps of: comparingthe value of the accumulated image value with the current toner levelvalue in the toner level register for the given print engine at thelocation of the given print engine which toner level value representsprinting pages at maximum toner usage; and subtracting the value of theaccumulated image value from the value in the toner level register if itis greater than the current toner level value in the toner levelregister for the given print engine at the location of the given printengine minus the minimum toner level.
 7. The method of claim 1 whereinthe print job is comprised of a plurality of pages, each page providinga separate rasterized page image and wherein the step of accumulatingcomprises the step of accumulating as the accumulated image value tonervalues for all of the rasterized page images as a single print job. 8.The method of claim 7, wherein the step of sending the rasterized imageto the print engine at the associated printing location for renderingcomprises sending the entire print job comprised of the rasterized pageimages to the given print engine at the associated printing location forrendering.